Galactic Gamer
by EnderDDT
Summary: A year ago aliens came to earth and explained that, in order to eliminate the loss of life resources inherent in war, a form of virtual reality had been created to act as a surrogate battlefield. Alan used to be a professional gamer till he "aged out" at 24, just as the aliens showed up. The story starts when an old business acquaintance gives him the opportunity of a lifetime.
1. 0-0 Prologue

A year ago aliens came to earth and explained that, in order to eliminate the loss of life and wasted resources inherent in war, a form of virtual reality had been created to act as a surrogate battlefield. Alan used to be a professional gamer till he "aged out" at 23. For the last year he has been without a clear goal, but an old business acquaintance just gave him the opportunity of a lifetime.

This is fanfiction. I therefore do not own any of the characters or the setting, that right goes to Ephemerality, the original work is known as "The Gam3", and is freely available online. In the original the main character was a teen with incredible luck and a lax attitude that gave him no certain direction. In this version the main character is several years older and dealt with his earlier issues by diving headfirst into the world of competitive e-sports before retiring. His experience resulted in a personality with a sharper focus, but this somehow came at the extreme cost of all luck. There are some AU (Alternate Universe) elements in it and my eventual direction is different than the original author's but, other than that and Alan's difference in personality, the main difference at the beginning is the five years that have passed and everything that happened during that time.

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Something bad was coming, and it was making me a bit paranoid. It was just a feeling and I had, and I had no way of telling what it was about, but it was bad luck worse than someone saying those six unspeakable words. I was not going to make things worse by actually saying them.

"Remember, Alan, treat it like the game that it is," Icewolf said, interrupting my thoughts.

I nodded, trying and failing to figure out what the point he was trying to make. "But it's also not," I replied, continuing a nod. "You told me that The Game impacts real life. That the politics of reality can only be understood by someone in the game."

"Sure, it may be a game that was designed to replace all war, but it's still a game, and you need to treat it like one." Icewolf leaned back on his pod as he spoke with me. He had lost some weight in the last year or so and looked lean, for lack of a better term. It was something of a strange look for the slightly pudgy businessman who had been one of my professional sponsors during my days on the pro circuit. He wore a light grey jumpsuit that only accentuated his newfound shape and was emblazoned with the Omnitech Industries logo of a steel pylon being struck by lightning. It was a ever-present logo around here and one that I had known by heart since I first got into professional gaming.

It was a little much to take in, I thought while staring out the window. The view of San Fransisco was gorgeous but it only seemed to further drive home the absurdity of the situation. If anyone had told me six months ago that I would be in a penthouse suite, one decked out like a Bond villian's lair, about to enter a virtual reality game that was central to the same aliens who had just invaded… I would likely have dismissed them as a troll, and a malicious one at that.

Yet here I was: A retired professional gamer preparing to go into the biggest most important game ever created. It somehow just didn't feel right. I had dropped out of college to play and, to be honest, looked the part with shortish black hair, jeans, and an old jacket from my days at the top. I also had no misconceptions about having any notoriety. It had been almost a year since leaving the team and nobody would remember an old player who had been replaced. Even when I had been on the team my play had been valuable for its dependability and I had personally been valuable for my insight. I was always someone who kept the team afloat and pointed out enemy weaknesses but never the star. Also, to be fair, nobody other than me ever had to be worried about being caught in an ambush while I was on the team. Then age had come. E-sports athletes tend to retire early. This opportunity I now had, this was pure luck of the type I couldn't have dreamed of. It made me suspicious.

"All I'm saying is to play to win. Don't hold back. It's you against everyone and so you should be determined to come out on top." Icewolf growled. He can be a bit intense, but you get used to it after a while.

"Of course," I replied, keeping it short so that he could finish what he wanted to say.

"So in any game, especially one where random crap is worth something, you would take anything and everything you could. If it isn't bolted down, it's fair game; if it is, than bring a crowbar. Even killing another player for their gear is fair game, you got that?" Icewolf prodded.

"Yeah, sure," I answered with a barely restrained eye roll, "just try not to get caught."

"But nothing. If you piss off some faction you can pay them off later, but in the meantime every kill makes you more powerful. Play the Game to win and don't treat it like reality or just another job, it's not and the rules aren't the same. If you die, you'll respawn, and the same goes for every other player. If you kill stuff you'll get more powerful. And so on. A higher KDR and more high point takedowns are all you need to take the lead position, so make the most of it." I couldn't help but wondering how any society could survive if everyone took that view of things, but I guess I would figure it out soon.

"Really, I got it," I said, taking a deep breath and barely holding back an eye roll at his attempt to using gaming terms to motivate me. "Nobody ever got ahead by sitting back and just letting things happen to them. I just never imagined that this would be my career path. Especially with how fast everything is changing recently, I half expected to be outmoded by a bot." It was a joke, but not much of one. Afterall, how could any AI beat out my roguish good looks. I did roll my eyes at that thought.

Icewolf paused at that then patted me on the shoulder before continuing. "It is fine, Alan. Do your own thing and build your character like you want. Just remember that there are still laws in the game so try to follow those while anyone is looking or when you might get caught." His words took on a sudden note of sarcasm. "Since the good old United World Government rules the Earth the laws are basically the same in the game as out, but everyone speeds and jaywalks and such. In The Game killing someone or anything similarly non-permanent is exactly the same. But also remember they aren't the final authority. They were able to make the laws because they hold the control points in the Game, and they had that chance because the Administrators and the Enforcers didn't allow any aliens to just do it first. Those are the ones you want to avoid pissing off, them and nobody else."

"If you say so," I replied.

"I do. We both remember when the Enforcer fleet first came here. All they did was hand out capsules and tell everyone what was happening and enforce their own rules, even going so far as to shut us down when we tried to do our own thing. It was only after the UWG had conquered the Earth in game that all our laws started to be enforced, but those two days of anarchy were a taste of why you don't want to get on their bad side." I remembered the chaos that had happened when everything fell apart. The only reason it wasn't worse was that it was over too quickly for people to properly panic or for others to figure out what they could get away with.

"It isn't that I don't believe you, it just seems so weird. Why are credits worth ten dollars each? Why play this sort of game at all? I guess I'll just have to get in game before this will all start making sense."

Icewolf looked over at his own capsule. It was a smooth metallic grey oval about 10 feet long sitting on a rectangular base. If anything the strange lines cemented the impression that this thing had come from space. The only thing that detracted from the sleek alien design were the metal wires and tubes that disappeared into the walls and the floor, seemingly anchoring it in this time and place.

My capsule was different from the four others in the suite. Not only was it larger and a darker shade of grey but it included a box attachment that was just under half the size of the central "egg" that was the whole of the other capsules and the box framed the back portion like the back of a throne. Not only were the heavy metal tubes present but there were additional wires leading to a miniature satellite dish. It was connected to the screens at the center of the room, showing alien symbols, and a bunch of giant cords for god only knows what purpose. All in all I was minorly worried that I would be electrocuted the moment I got in, but that fear was edged out by the irrational notion of how closely the pods resembled sensory deprivation tanks.

"Last words of advice," Icewolf said for what felt like the millionth time. "Focus on yourself before anyone else, but remember that you owe me fifty million dollars for the capsule. You can begin paying me off after the tutorial, with interest.

"I recommend energy weapons, they're easy to use. Just point and shoot; no additional ammo, reloading, or even recoil to throw you off. Remember that armor is of the utmost necessity since it will keep you fighting longer. But even with armor be sure not to piss off anyone with bigger guns than you or anyone with friends who can make you pay for your actions, or at least don't get caught. Finally, are you sure you trust that AI you designed? I know you programmed it yourself, but there have been cases where AI went crazy after being transferred into the Game."

I shrugged. It hadn't been all that hard, all I did was follow an online tutorial. "It shouldn't be a problem. She is supposed programmed to be loyal, but even if that doesn't work she also has restrictions that keep her from lying and such." Well, lying to me, at least.

"Just be careful. The AI that oversees the UWG military operations may be a rank B but most government operations and large corporations are basically run by a rank D AI, same as yours. That's scary enough, but combined with the rank B capsule…" Icewolf let his point stand as he trailed off.

So… I was going to be eaten by my AI? I've seen enough made for TV movies to know how that turns out. "That's one thing I've been wondering about; the game somehow uses ranks, and levels? Which one do I need to pay more attention to?"

Icewolf raised an eyebrow at that but then scoffed and continued. "Ranks are mostly used to describe things or abilities, placing them on a ranking of best to worst or most powerful to least. They may seem odd but they're accurate enough that everyone from the Pentagon to the god damned aliens use them for judging everything from food to spaceships. If you want to know how powerful something is compared to other things that can do the same job, look at the ranking. The Game does uses levels to figure out your character's overall power, but what you get out of it depends on how you have focused your skills. So whatever you do, try not to spend all your levels on worthless shit, ok? Get it into your head that your real ability is determined by the ranking of your skills and of your stuff, but that your level limits both of those things. You'll find out more about it in The Game."

"So all I need to do is get the best skills I can and the best stuff I can, right? Hopefully I won't have to spend too long building up resources to get something really good."

"You won't." He stated simply. "The reason your capsule cost so much is because it's a rank B capsule and has been specialized to let you have an in-game AI. Truth be told I could probably sell it for a hundred million. To put it in perspective an Olympic weightlifter's strength would probably be a low rank D, and your capsule is an B. The main difference between it and something lesser is that you get more starting credits. You'll go into the game with every advantage that a person could want, so don't let it go to waste." He was lying, he could only sell it for fifty million, though he did buy it for only ten so it still would have been a good deal.

"Got it," I said, trying not to sound flippant at his obvious belaboring of his point, "my AI is over powered, the capsule even more so, and I'll start paying you back once I'm done with the tutorial." I considered for a moment the idea of asking why Icewolf had decided to take such a risk for him but remembered that Eve had already looked into the details of how I got this chance. Apparently Icewolf, whose real name was Marvin Dunham, had found this particular capsule for 80% off before he offered to sell it to me along with renting the space to use it. He probably had no idea that I knew what my real debt was, something I would have to deal with later, but for now I had to remember not to piss off the guy who owned the roof over my head. "Let's get started," I mumbled, trying not to let on my annoyance at how he was trying to cheat me.

As I approached my capsule it opened, revealing an opaque pool of silvery liquid. I stopped, staring down at what would be the biggest step in his entire life. If what I had read was true than this was a step into an entirely new life, and even that amount of information was heavily restricted. The best info I could find let me to believe this would be some sort of sci-fi MMO RPG, one built with the most perfect virtual reality ever. It would feel like stepping into a new world, to be a new 'me' based on who I already was. Just about anything was possible, so why was I still so worried. Something had me spooked and it was all I could do to avoid those six little words that could only make things worse.

Icewolf returned a flat smile as I halted before the edge of my capsule. "Think of it as an investment: I have the capital and want to sponsor someone I know is a capable gamer, a friend even. I'll have some jobs for you once you've finished the Tutorial, so we can get started after that. And remember, you play to win." I wasn't sure why he was bringing that up, did he think I was worried about why he had picked me? He had a capsule built for an AI and I had an AI that I had trained, among other things, to play games. The thing that worried me was how much it seemed like good luck that I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. In my experience good luck was made, it never just happened. Something to worry about later.

Taking a deep breath, more to calm my nerves than for any other reason, I climbed into the capsule and sank into the liquid. It felt like gelatin but flowed freely though my clothes. It was only after the lid began closing, forcing out the remaining air, that I remembered that I still held breath. The lid finally locked into place but all light had been gone since he had been forced under the silvery stuff that tingled across every inch of my skin. With no fresh air I panicked, finding that I couldn't even flail my arms as they went limp as the surrounding liquid. It took less than a minute before my tired body gasped for air and found that liquid breathable. For a few moments I wondered how that was supposed to work, followed by an exasperated realization that 'aliens did it' was more than enough of an answer.

And as my consciousness drifted away a stray thought came to me; six words that I would never have willingly spoken, or even thought, if I weren't so relaxed after coming off a panic: _What's the worst that could happen?_


	2. 1-01 The Tutorial

I awoke and sat up in a field of yellow grass, baked and dried in the sun from some previous day, but noticed that it was still early morning. The first thing I noticed was that I felt great, and only for a moment wondered if I had died. Then, remembering the Game, looked around in amazement. Everything felt so very real: touch, sight, even smell. It didn't make sense, but everything felt even more real than real life.

Now I wasn't in bad health, but I was a typical gamer. I had some allergies, imperfect but not glasses worthy sight, and even suffered a less than stellar sense of smell. All that was now gone. I could see everything around in frankly impossible clarity, even discerning an individual blade of grass and the tiny drop of water on it from something like twenty feet away. For instance my sense of smell, besides being without allergies, contained absolutely everything. I could smell grass, something like lemons coming from a nearby grove of trees, and even the faint smell of what was unmistakably an animal's droppings. It was… unreal.

I stood up and looked around, more to take in the sights than for any more practical purpose. I had time and could afford the indulgence. Next I tested myself with a few steps followed by a few jumps. It felt like back in high-school when I had run cross country, except that even then I had never been in this good of shape. I felt like I could easily run a six-minute mile and mused to myself how exercise would almost be a joy with abilities like these.

Next I tried actually moving toward something that had looked like farmhouses in the distance. This brought with it a confirmation of my newfound speed and something of a shock: my balance had improved as well. Balance is one of those things that had always seemed a non-issue because either you had it or you fell over. This, however, caused me to rethink everything. Dancers, fighters, acrobats: I had always known that they had a special knack for understanding how their body related to the world around them but actually experiencing it was something else.

It was in the midst of this sense of discovery that I noticed the small semi-transparent icons near the edge of my vision. The symbols seemed to include all the normal buttons I had come to expect from any game. There was an icon for my character, for friends, for a guild, an inventory, and achievements. I assumed that these were all fairly self explanatory; the character button dealt with abilities, the friends button was for adding and dealing with other people, and guilds was for working with groups, and so on. There was also a small map and a clock in the top corner of my vision.

This button discovery brought with it a problem, how to use them. I tried focusing on them with my eyes but that just made them turn transparent. Waving my hands and poking in space did less than nothing, it made me look and feel stupid. Finally I tried voice activation. "Character menu?" That worked, sorta… A 3d picture of myself was displayed with vague indicators telling me that I was at 100% health, 96% stamina, and other unhelpful bits of information. My name was listed as AdamPWNZ, apparently Icewolf had given me my gaming title as my actual character name. There was even a section for skills, which was entirely empty. There were some other options which I quickly went through but nothing made much sense or gave me any real information. For a gamer who always played with honed skill based on concrete numbers, this was less than a happy sight.

"Seriously," I asked out loud, "what do I have to do to get some actual numbers for this stuff?"

 _Further information will be provided to your display as it becomes available._ The words came like a voice in my head. Familiar, non-threatening, but jarringly unexpected.

Great, I was hearing disembodied voices now too. The thought drifted through my head along with the worry that insanity was the cost of physical ability. It would certainly explain the attitudes of some of the traditional 'athletes' and 'jocks' I had known in the past.

 _I am not a 'disembodied voice', I am your custom AI; Eve._ _The disembodied voice sounded annoyed._

This gave me pause. _Wait, you can hear me when I think?_ I asked, specifically thinking the words rather than speaking them.

 _Affirmative._

 _And you have been just sitting there watching me this entire time?_

 _Negative. Further processes include scanning and recording the environment, updating your display and working toward optimal advancement within the game._ The voice sounded neutral but still oddly disdainful of he idea that it had just been sitting around doing nothing.

 _Do I, or my thoughts, count as part of this 'environment' that you are recording?_ I asked with a thought.

 _Affirmative._

 _Good to know. Stop recording what I am thinking, thank you very much._ I also wondered why she was recording stuff like that in the first place.

 _Affirmative._

 _Also, try talking like a normal person. With a don't just say 'affirmative' all the time, mix it up a bit. Hearing the exact same things all the time will get old fast._

 _Ok._ It still seemed a bit forced, but it was a start and I could work with that.

 _You mentioned that you were updating my display, what else can you show me? Where even am I right now?_

 _I am capable of accessing over 200 mezobites of data while bringing in additional information as needed. The main limiting factor is in the data that you are capable of processing through your limited means. According to my calculations, based on the position of the sun, the weather, the local flora and fauna, and the time I believe we are in Sonama county Florida._

I rolled my eyes at that. My own AI thought it was smarter than me. _Flora and Fauna?_ I asked with more cheer than strictly necessary.

 _Animals and plants,_ it, or she, replied. She sounded somewhat annoyed in a completely neutral way.

 _Cool. Can you show me any that might be dangerous? Give them a red outline or something._

Immediately the entire area turned bright red as everything, starting at each individual blade of grass, lit up. I sighed. This would take some refining.

 _Ok, only show things that could be deadly to me relatively immediately. Like, in the next hour or so._ I added that last part to head off any assumption that anything might be eventually deadly if someone thought about it long enough.

It did nothing. The entire area remained lit in that garish bright red.

I sighed, and then began the incredibly tedious process of refining my UI and the input I got from Eve. I soon learned a few very important things. Eve, while powerful for absorbing and quantifying data, was absolutely terrible at figuring out how to display it. Second, if I wanted something done in a specific way I would have to spell out exactly what I wanted as though I was writing a script. While she could execute commands she lacked the ability to understand the reality of things as simple as what counted as real danger without having it turned into a logic formula. Finally it seemed that she gathered environmental data through my senses but also had some sort of ability to sense things in every direction, though she gained more information if I actually looked in that direction. All she could tell me about how she knew was that she somehow "quantified the amalgamation of indirect sensory data" in an entirely unhelpful explanation.

In the end I was able to get my map setup, warnings for danger, and streamlined the way that Eve gave me information about other things. As I was working my way down to less immediate more long term stuff I suddenly noticed a timer counting down from 18:21 with lots of decimals.

 _Eve, what is that timer for?_

 _That is the time remaining till the Tutorial Phase begins._

Wait, what? Icewolf told me I would have a full day till the tutorial began? _Where did my time go?_ I figured that Eve might know. _Actually, more important, what do you know about what happens when the Tutorial Phase begins?_

 _According to my data you woke up with 2 hours, 34 minutes, 18 seconds, 384…_

 _Stop,_ I interrupted, _I don't need that sort of precise numbers, not unless it is actually important._

 _I understand. As for the Tutorial Phase, information concerning the specifics of The Game are restricted from those who have not yet completed the Tutorial Phase so the only information I have are rumors and supposition drawn from…_

 _Quickly, we don't have much time._

 _Ok. Most likely there will be a training phase aspects of The Game to teach you the basics along with some way of customizing or defining yourself as a character. Furthermore our conversations are occurring at the speed of thought, therefore your concerns about the duration my explanations are unfounded._ There was that "totally not condescending" voice again.

 _Fine,_ I thought while heading toward one of the farmhouses, the biggest one that looked more "house" and less "farm", while continuing my conversation. _Highlight any significant resources that you think might be useful. Money, weapons, food, a cell phone, anything._

 _Built in aspects of The Game make some of your requests nonsensical or at least partially redundant. The monetary system is in credits that are directly tied to your character, therefore your typical "paper" money is all but worthless. Similarly messages are sent through in-game communications systems and peripherals are of secondary concern as they are completely unnecessary for the conversations to take place._

Silently I was glad that our conversations were at the speed of thought and not outloud, otherwise Eve's overly talkative nature would be costing me time that could be better spent getting ready for whatever the "tutorial" ended up being. Instead I decided to focus on another question that popped up. _What if I want to look at the messages later later, if the messages aren't saved on a device than does the system archive old messages?_

 _It is unlikely that the messages are saved as there is some technology that seems specifically designed for that purpose. Such technology would be inefficient and redundant, however, as I am already capable of recalling the information exactly and do not require a physical device in order to display it to you. Furthermore, as you have noted, the recall of said information would be immediate and not be delayed by human reaction times or physical activity._ Once again I heard what I could have sworn was a sarcastic bite to her tone.

I almost stopped running for a moment as I realized what was going on with her attitude, but managed to catch myself. It was one of those moments when the answer seemed so obvious that I couldn't believe I had missed it for so long. She was right there in my head. _Eve,_ I thought, _there is a reason why people only choose to voice some thoughts and not everything. Just because something pops up is my head doesn't mean I'm going to act on it. Idle thoughts are more like "what if" scenarios than anything anyone should respond or react to. That includes you. Didn't you know that from all your research?_

I finally reached the door and found it locked, then turned and dashed for a nearby building that looked like a guest house as I processed Eve's immediate reply. _My experience has led me to believe that, although humanity claims to be capable of monitoring themselves such that they do not express every inane and inflammatory thought, the vast majority of individuals are incapable of actually doing so._

Translation: Eve thinks that humanity are all jerks with no filter on what they say. To be fair, though, I can understand why she would think that way. Despite how human it/she might seem the whole thing started with me being bored, stressed out, and then randomly finding a "guide to making AI" site on the internet. My entire experience with computers up to that point was in video-games, playing not making them, and I admit that I had no idea what I was doing. So when it came to giving the new AI a knowledge and experience base I took a shortcut. I gave my computer an internet connection and let her go. Apparently the trolls on various forums aren't a good representation of humanity as a whole; Who knew! A couple weeks in I somehow attracted the attention of an organization that offered me a grant to upgrade my computer systems, this led to further up grades of the AI itself (again following the instructions from the same website), and that led to Icewolf offering to sponsor me in The Game.

All in all, it was an eventful couple of months, though it was partially overshadowed by the fact that literal alien robots had shown up that same year making pod people out of the highest government officials and asking us to play an RPG for the fate of the galaxy. Reality got weird _fast_.

The side house had a glass door so, instead of being delayed by a lock, I grabbed a small decorative boulder twice the size of my head and chunked it at the door with all my speed and newly acquired strength. It bounced. Stupid space-aged shatterproof glass. At least I managed to make a dent, but that was literally all I saw for my effort. I wonder if the window be easier to break or if it would be made of unbreakable alien glass too?

 _The sliding door is unlocked._

 _How did you…? No, I have more important stuff to focus on._ And then we were off. The first stop was into a bedroom to rummage around till I found a backpack and I threw in a multitool, some clothes that looked like they might fit, and some weird technological looking device that Eve claimed was a waste of space. It was relatively small, though, so I decided to grab it anyway and figure out what it was when I had time. I left behind the bow and arrow set because, seriously, what am I going to be able to do with it? Next was the hall closet where I grabbed what Eve told me was an all weather jacket but I left behind the, I kid you not, ice climbing gear. Finally I hit the kitchen, as close to a full run as I could get. I grabbed a box of what Eve told me was supposed to be food, a couple water bottles, and barely rushed over to a nearby chopping block to grab the biggest knife before the time was up.

And then I waited for the last couple seconds. What would likely be one of the most important events in my life was coming up and only one thought popped into my head:

 _Hu. I think I probably look like a slasher hitchhiker right now. This isn't exactly the best start ever. Oh, who am I kidding, this is exactly how I start off in most RPGs._

Eve said nothing but I could practically feel the unspoken waves of sarcasm from her.

0:00:03…

0:00:02…

0:00:01…


	3. 1-02 The Tutorial

I waited in the exact same spot, trying to brace myself for whatever world altering thing might come next. What I got instead was a polite message that popped up in front of me.

[ _Welcome to The Game. As this is your first time logging in the United World Government would like to invite you to a presentation before you begin your tutorial. Acceptance will cause you to proceed to UWG spaceport while declining the offer will begin the tutorial immediately. Accept/Decline_ ]

I considered it for a moment, though there really wasn't much to consider. I was going in blind and perhaps this would give me some clue what to expect. Thinking about hitting the 'accept' button would be enough, although I had briefly entertained the idea of poking at the air to hit it or some sort of secret eye movement, like from some TV show.

 _Accept._ I thought, glancing around to see if a spacecraft was going to show up to pick me up.

Instead I felt a moment of disorientation and weightlessness that was immediately followed by a blinding light. All I could do was shut my eyes till I felt a different sort of disorientation and the lights faded enough for me to see.

What I saw next could have come straight out of a sci-fi movie. I was currently standing in a cylindrical tube with a glass front that rose up to give me access to the room at large. As I stepped forward I saw that the entire room was filled with these chambers facing together toward a central walkway. In front of me, not five feet away, was a guy in full military gear with a quite intimidating weapon who stepped forward. He looked like Robocop. I stepped out of my tube and I could have sworn he gave me a look.

"Hi there," I attempted, trying not to waive my knife around too much but also trying to not look like I was hiding the weapon. "You don't happen to have something I could put my knife in, do you?"

The soldier just stared blankly back at me. He looked almost surprised that I had spoken.

"You see I wasn't sure what to expect and I thought there might be some sort of survival challenge so I just grabbed whatever I could before I had to go." I wasn't sure if I was digging myself in deeper on not because the soldier just stared at me for a moment longer before responding.

"Oh, Ok. Just wait here a moment, Player." The soldier finally responded, holding out his hand for the knife. I handed it to him and watched him walk over toward a guard station near the exit.

As I waited I looked around and got my first good look at the building. On second glance it was far less futuristic than I had first thought, at one time it may have been an aircraft hanger but now it was filled with two rows of tubes and the assorted equipment behind them. There were maybe fifty of those alien teleporters in all and people kept stepping out of them and following the directions of the soldiers out the near exit. Most of the people were fairly uniform in appearance: Large, athletically fit, wearing an obvious insignia from their sponsoring organization, and most were carrying a weapon such as a sidearm or something more exotic attached to their back. I felt distinctly out of place.

But, at the same time, I also felt a lot less weird than I had before. Nearby a guy in a full suit of armor carrying a two handed bastard sword and a shield walked past with what looked like a wizard in flowing blue robes and a hat that were decorated with variaous designs of astrological, magical, and foreign language design. The wizard waved his hands around in crazy exaggerated motions but it was the man in the suit of armor who actually spoke.

"…some middle of no-where place out on the countryside. I spent a full half a day just trying to get used to this armor. I bet you never knew that chainmail could ride up your…"

My thought process, about how something as heavy as chainmail could ride upward, was broken by the sight of the soldier returning with a sheathed combat/utility knife in hand. Gone was the flat expression and replacing it was a barely concealed smile.

"I had a talk with my C. O. and he suggested this might be a bit more useful. It's just a basic combat knife, stick it in your pocket or on your belt and head toward the auditorium." He handed me the weapon and I tried to figure out the straps to put it on my belt and tie the bottom of the sheath to my leg. I started moving toward the door as I heard him continue, "Just remember, stab them with the pointy end."

Everybody is a comedian, but not everyone is carrying a fully automatic weapon and is backed up by fifty of his friends in the same room, so I decided not to be sarcastic back. "Thanks," I said instead and hurried to join the crowd.

Speaking of friends, _Eve, can you locate Kitana in this crowd?_ I asked as I joined the flow of people moving toward the large white tent that could have easily housed an entire three-ringed-circus. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people were coming in from at least a dozen of those hangers. I could see now that different groups of soldiers were herding people from different tents, different in ethnic nationality but all wearing the same uniform.

 _Of course._ My minimap suddenly lit up a point in front of me and to my left and I quickly found her talking to an Asian guy and walking in a small group with the armored guy and the wizard. At some point she had exchanged the clothing that she had been wearing when she went into the capsule for a flowing GI and now carried a sword at her side, and I noticed that her hand never left it. I blame my experience with various anime for my ability to notice that last bit about her hand and the sword. See, cartoons can be useful in real life.

As I approached it became clear that she was part of some sort of a group and I was wondering if I was intruding when a handsome Hispanic guy walked up between me and the group. The guy seemed to just appear in front of me, despite him wearing a perfectly white suit. The guy pulled it off too, appearing both relaxed and firm at the same time in an outfit that would have made me look silly. "Hello there, can I help you?" he asked in his best 'go away' tone.

I was debating on what to say when Kitana spoke up in her usual direct tone. "This is the guy I was telling you about, Alan with the advanced AI."

The white suit's demeanor changed immediately and he held out his hand with a bit of a smile. "Oh, hello Alan. Nice to meet you. My name is Thiago. I don't know what Kitana has told you, but we are just a bunch of kids who have arranged to be on the same ship to Kershath. In fact, this is the first time any of us has actually met in person."

To his right the guy in the armor stepped forward and lifted his faceplate. He looked to be about twice my weight in muscle along with an extra foot in height, but there was no way of knowing how much of that was due to the armor. Two blue eyes, brown hair, and an otherwise lighthearted face peeked out from within the helmet. "KingArthur , at your service." He spoke, with a salute of his hand to his chest and a slightly British accent.

"And MadMerlin at his!" the wizard spoke up immediately after, pointing to Arthur and laughing manically at his own joke. I struggled to not give him an incredulous look.

"Don't mind him," Arthor said with a sigh, "He's convinced that if he acts completely mental The Game will give him a special class or something." Merlin only smiled and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Hi, I'm Daisy," It was a pretty blond girl in a yellow sundress and strappy sandals that spoke up next with a polite nod of her head. "I was going to be a I was in the middle of studies at Brown before this whole 'alien' thing happened."

The next to introduce himself was a short brawny guy walking next to Daisy. "You can call me Ace." He was wearing military fatigues, a close cropped haircut, and had a very no-nonsenses demeanor about him."

"Aphroditie." The next girl spoke up from the front of the group. I had to admit, she pulled off the name excellently. She may have been wearing little more than a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt but both were well fitted and showed off her supermodel worthy body. Combine that with her long silky brown hair and the very way she held herself, and it was hard not to stare.

I looked back toward Kitana who only nodded while the Asian guy to her side didn't even seem to acknowledge me at all at first. At his side he carried an old style machine gun and the way he was dressed in a black suit with a black shirt made me think he looked like a Asian mobster. Eventually I managed to learn that his name was DaLong.

The walk toward the tent was leisurely and we made small talk as we went. It wasn't too long of a walk but I ended up next to Daisy and Ace for most of it. What I learned, though, was that Thiago hadn't been kidding about this being the first time everyone was able to meet up. Almost everyone was from wildly different areas. Thiago was apparently from Mexico, KingArthur and MadMerlin were from different parts of the UK, Daisy was from Canada, Aphroditie was from east central US, Ace from the east-coast US, Kitana was from Japan, and finally DeLong was Chinese. I also learned that everyone had been in extensive contact with each other and that I was very much the odd man out.

Still, I tried to keep up with their conversation as they talked about their various adventures over their first day and everything they had done over the last few days to get ready to enter The Game. Me, I had tried to do some basic research on what I would be running into and hit a giant wall of nothing. Apparently those who were in the game were restricted from passing off too much information about what was in the game. I had set Eve to focus on finding that information but ended up with so much conflicting that I had ended up more confused than I had started. I had no grand plans to meet up with old mentors in the game and even my goodbyes to my parents had been underwhelming. All I had was the knowledge that Kitana was in one of the other Omnitech pods and that it might be good to meet up with her. When we finally got to the interior a couple of the group members glanced at me before Daisy spoke up.

"Um, actually, that is my mom up there. She reserved some seats for me and my friends since we figured it was going to be pretty crowded. We weren't really expecting anyone else to join us so…" she trailed off.

"No, no. I get it. Good luck everyone. Maybe we will run into each other later." In truth, though, I was a little glad to have an excuse to get away. They had their little group and I very much wasn't a part of it. Ace and DeLong gave me a skeptical look but we separated on generally friendly terms. I found a convenient seat near an outside isle and waited.

 _Eve, do you have any idea where we are?_

 _Location unknown. Best guess: An international spaceport or military base that does not exist in reality._ I smiled at her use of the term "guess", one of the other things I had told her before was to use less technical words and to try to speak more like a normal person would. She continued, _Local network detected; do I have permission to hack it to answer the question._

 _Wait, you think you can hack the government system just like that?_

 _Of course._

 _And you don't think you will be detected or that it will be traced back to me?_

 _Chances are negligible. There is a .05% chance of detection and only a 20% chance of being traced even if that discovery happens._

I was speechless. I literally had no idea what to say to that. I waited a moment for her to continue to hopefully explain how she had come to that conclusion. She didn't, so I decided to ask her for more information as diplomatically as I could. _Why in the world do you think you can just hack a government system so easily without being detected?_

 _I have located an open backdoor program currently running in the system. Any detection or tracing through the system will likely target the user who initiated the breach._

Now THAT got my attention and I reflexively looked around nervously. Seriously, what exactly was going on here? I was beginning to feel like I had stumbled onto something way over my head. I needed to know what was going on. I needed information. _Eve, Do it. Grab anything and everything you can safely. Also, watch for any developing situation. If something happens I want to be ready before it happens._

 _Understood._ It took only a few seconds but Eve, likely responding to the urgency in my voice, let me know each step of her progress. _Accessing network… Network accessed… Masking presence… 7 other users detected… Downloading data… Monitoring incoming data-streams. I can now confirm that you are in an international spacestation outside Washington DC that does not exist in reality._

This was a little overwhelming. I knew that Eve had some hacking knowledge, one of the sites I had set her loose on was specifically devoted to that sort of computer techie stuff. I had even bought her an unlimited library pass for digitized books and made sure that she got some books that talked about hacking from more legitimately recognized sources. Even so, It was a little overwhelming that finding a backdoor that was being used to hack a military system was so easy for her. I was reminded of Icewolfs warning about the power of my AI; it would be really easy to just mindlessly follow everything she said and just assume she knew better than me about everything. I would eventually be little more than a spectator in my own life, if I did that. Now THAT was a sobering thought.

To distract myself I decided to look around the room and on the stage. There was a blue handed alien in a dark spacesuit that covered most of his body and a helmet that covered head and face. The faceplate itself stood out in a dark blue with three silver lines running horizontally across it. Next to him, at least I guessed that the alien was a "him", were three humans. The first was dressed in military attire and looked relaxed in the way that you only see with people who are constantly expecting something to go wrong. The other human male was vaguely Asian, dressed in a sharp suit, and was talking as though the military officer should be paying attention as the officer stood stiffly looking out over the group. The third human, presumably Daisy's mother, was dressed in a casual pantsuit and had moved forward to the edge of the stage and was kneeling down to speak to someone on the floor. I couldn't see daisy, she was too short, but I could make out what was likely the heads of some of the rest of the group including Arthur's distinctive helmet.

I was wondering about the group when Eve spoke up.

 _The Senator you recognize from the news and her involvement with the alliance between Earth and the Haxlord empire. The Military officer is a two star general, though his enlistment records are not public nor are they contained on the system. The man beside him is a diplomat whose job is to work as a go between for the many groups now united under the United World Government's supervision. The alien is an Ultihaxlord, the commanders or lords of the Haxlord race._

My mind ran in several directions at once. Why wasn't the general's information in the military system? How horrible must the diplomat's job be when every government on earth had been forced under the UWG a little less than a year ago? Mainly, though, I wondered about the alien. _What can you tell me about the Ultihaxlord and the Haxlord races? Can you give me a general wiki entry level of information or something?_

 _The Haxlord race is humanoid in general appearance other than blue skin, similar to the majority of races in direct contact with humanity.* They are most notable as being the race that introduced Earth to the galaxy at large and as the primary ally of the UWG. The Haxlords are ruled** by the Ultihaxlords who also have blue skin but have been shown to have superior strength, intelligence, and agility._

 _* The facial features of the Haxlord and Ultihaxlord races are unknown as they are never seen without their masks. It is unknown if the masks have a cultural significance or if they serve some biological purpose. Some evidence suggests that not all Haxlords have blue skin, though this has not been directly observed on Earth._

 _** The exact relationship between the Haxlords and Ultihaxlords is unknown. The Ultihaxlords have been seen ordering Haxlords on various occasions and they are the only ones known to have positions of authority which, along with their identical skin color, would suggest one race with only a difference of authority separating them. Nevertheless when asked both Haxlords and Ultihaxlords express that they are of different races._

That was a little weird. How exactly were there footnotes implanted in a thought? What seemed stranger to me was the fact that so many aliens were humanoid in the first place. I had read some on it until I realized that it all seemed to be guesswork with nothing to back it up. Perhaps the aliens knew? But again, there was a restriction on information for anyone not in The Game and at this point it was hard to figure out what was ok to talk about and what wasn't.

My thoughts were interrupted as Daisy's mother walked up to the center of the stage and began speaking. The crowd silenced considerably at that but the Senitor's voice was somehow amplified enough to be easily heard regardless of the other noise and without any obvious microphone.

"Welcome everyone, and thank you for coming to join The Game. I'm sure you all are looking forward to your time here and are anticipating all of the grand adventures you might have. But first let me make one thing very very clear to you about this so called 'game'," her voice got more serious as she stared out toward the crowd. Moments passed as she gathered everyone's attention.

"As of now, weather you want to be or not, you are officially part of the war that will determine the fate of planet Earth. We have only two choices, we will win or we will be eliminated. I know this may be a lot for many of you to take in, but this is the truth that you need to know. Those of you with me today are part of the fourth major wave of humans to make it into The Game. You are some of the best and the brightens among us. We will need every last one of you if we are to survive.

"The Game is a war on a universal scale. The entire governance and administration of what happens in reality is determined by what happens right here. Those with control in The Game write the laws and have the rights to every resource and territory that they have in the game. Those without control are at the mercy of those who do have it. What happens in The Game has more of an influence over reality than, in most cases, reality itself does. It is for this reason that money you make here is valid in reality. Power, influence, and connections in the game translate meaningfully to reality as well. This is not a game for any of you, this is the new reality.

"We have been told that this all came to be when two races, the Predicessors and another group known as the 'Lords of Life', had a great and terrible war that threatened to destroy the whole of civilization. Lives were lost in numbers completely unfathomable to any civilization before or since. Entire worlds and then entire systems were made inhospitable and unapproachable. Both sides, seeing the extinction that was nearing, decided to confine their war to The Game and, to that end, they built The Enforcers to ensure that laws could be established and that whichever side lost would truly surrender. In The Game the Enforcers are known as Administrators and, as in all things, they are just as real an influence in The Game as they are in reality.

"The Game was created to bring an end to the bloodshed of war, but let me make one thing extremely clear to everyone here: The Predecessors still exist while the Lords of Life are nothing but myth and legend."

The senator took a few seconds to let her point sink in. For a few seconds everything was silent. Then she continued. "The enforcers hold the only and largest war fleet in all of known reality. In truth we don't even know how far The Game has spread through the universe, but the Enforcers do. Any race that attempts to create a war fleet in reality is utterly eliminated. That is the truth of reality now, and this is something that we will all have to work with.

"New civilizations have a period of immunity between when they are introduced to The Game and when they can be attacked. Our period is around three more years in reality. After this any other civilization, no matter how large or established, may choose to take over our territory. This will give them the right to our land, our resources, and even the ability to change our laws as they see fit. Earth needs to be ready! You need to be ready. Everyone here needs to…"

 _GET OUT!_ Eve yelled at me and I jumped to my feet without thinking. A few of those around me looked up but the vast majority remained focused on the Senator. To be fair I was near the back and it was a good speech, but the urgency in Eve's voice had me heading toward the back exit without really even thinking.

 _What is going on?_ I finally remembered to ask.

 _There is a bomb in the tent and this location will presently be under attack._

 _What?!_

 _There is a bomb in the tent and this location will presently be under attack._ She repeated in exactly the same tone of voice.

 _What? No, I mean, how do you know?_

 _One of the users modified the network to hide the explosives activation sequence from the automated surveillance system and then further modified it to hide a group of para-military attackers approaching from the north._

I finally reached the door where a group of soldiers were standing guard. A couple of them looked suspicious but most of them all but ignored me. One of the more warry ones approached with a hand out to stop me.

"What do I do? Where do I need to go?" I asked Eve, forgetting to think the request rather than speak it.

 _Run now. I will calculate a path to your destination once you are safely away from potential conflict zones._

The soldier also answered me, though he reached to his gun as he did so. "Looking to leave early? What's the rush?"

 _Do not reveal my presence, certain aspects of this situation are highly suspicious._

 _No shit, Sherlock._ I answered, then continued outloud. "Um, just a feeling."

The soldier nodded and relaxed some. Fate must hate me, though, because at that exact moment there was the unmistakable noise of machine gun fire in the distance. The soldiers were all suddenly at attention with guns in hand. Someone stepped forward with an air of authority and, without a single word, half the guns were trained on me while the other half were faced outward. A label appeared above his head reading "Seargent", and I silently thanked Eve for the information.

"Sir," he spoke to me in a dangerous tone with a slight accent that I only now noticed, "I believe we are going to have to have some words."


	4. 1-03 The Tutorial

People were now rushing out of the tent and more soldiers were arriving to help guide them. The whole place was in chaos and I briefly considered just making a break for it, except that the soldiers would easily gun me down. Unfortunately this group seemed untouched by the chaos as they kept me cornered. So there I stood, surrounded by angry men with machine guns with the approaching sound of gunfire, and of course things got worse.

 _Don't resist. I will try to get help from the opposing side._

 _What?_ I looked around at the group and slowly raised my hands in surrender as a very real sense of panic started running through me.

 _Unknown query. Please rephrase._ Eve's words and my thoughts were interrupted by the Sargent.

"Lets start with an easy question. Where did you get that government issued knife at your side?"

I looked down in confusion, briefly forgetting what he was talking about. Then I remembered Icewolf's advice: remember that this is just a game. What's the worst thing that could happen, I would die and respawn? So I answered in the most confusing way I could: honestly. "I showed up with a kitchen knife and one of the military guys traded me for it. I think he was trying to be funny."

"And why were you running out of the tent just moments before the shooting started? It seemed very much like you knew it was going to happen."

I froze at that and considered lying, remembered that I didn't trust him enough to tell the truth, then compromised. "I can't really say. It was a kind of voice in my head that warned me to get out." There, what I said was completely the truth without actually telling anything.

He looked back at me skeptically. "And is there anything else you want to tell me? Anything we should know about this situation we are now in?"

I was about to tell him no and his eyes began to narrow even before I had opened my mouth. Crap. This guy is like one of those TV cops who always knows when you are lying. If I can't lie and I can't get away then I might as well tell the truth and see what happens. "Um, I think there might be a bomb or something in the tent. I mean, I never actually saw it but I'm pretty sure and I just wanted to get out."

He stared back at me harshly. "Really now. And how would you know something like that?"

 _Tell him you are a nascent precog._ Eve suggested with absolutely no explanation.

"Nascent precog?" I spoke out loud, not even sure if I was pronouncing it right. _Wait, do precogs really exist? Can people actually tell the future for real?_

 _…_ Eve answered oh-so helpfully.

"Boy, do you have any idea what you are saying?"

I stared back in silence. He apparently took that as an answer.

"Hm, of course you don't." The officer turned toward the other soldiers who immediately jumped to other jobs while the entire group lowered their weapons. "Stand down," he spoke, almost as an afterthought. I was certain the words were for my benefit rather than an actual order.

 _Eve, do you know how the commander is directing his troops silently?_

 _He is likely using the game's built in communication interface, what you would call a messaging system. I mentioned this capability earlier when you were asking about supplies._

 _So I could message Kitana and try to meet up with her then?_

 _Negative. With certain exceptions, you can only message persons on your mutual contact lists or who are within direct line of effect. What you would term "eyeshot"._

 _Can you at least figure out where she is or where she is going? I think it would be a lot safer to travel with a known friendly rather than these guys._

 _That is acceptable._

 _Also, have you figured out where I am supposed to be going yet?_

 _I figured out where you were originally scheduled to go, but your assignment is currently being changed._

 _Changed?_ I asked, then remembered that I needed to ask in such a way that my dumb AI would understand. _Who is changing my assignment and what are they changing it to?_

 _Your tutorial was changed from a Mars mission focused on mining to an Earth mission favored by commissioned UWG military officers. The assignment was changed by a military officer who presides over this encampment but who's name is mysteriously missing from all data banks._

 _That is… not normal._ I thought to myself. _If it doesn't have something so basic than what information does the computer system have?_

There were a few seconds before Eve answered. _The computer contains only information on new players and integrated base systems that cannot be removed. All other information was manually removed several hours ago, ten minutes before the rebel hack was initiated._

Ten minutes? That couldn't be a coincidence. And if the military knew someone was in their system than shouldn't they have done something about it? Eve had told me that being found was only an issue if people started looking, so why wasn't anyone looking if it was obvious that the military knew about the hack before it happened? I looked around, trying to figure out how to get away. There were plenty of people leaving the tent now, speaking to annoyed military officers and then running off to unknown destinations. From inside I could hear the Senator urging everyone to calm down. The soldiers were all definitely still watching me, but they were also somewhat distracted by the new players demanding to know where they should go. Eve had, at some point, marked both my old tutorial destination and my new one on my map so, rather than stay, I tried to walk off toward my old start point. I didn't get far before one of the guards physically blocked my way. He was… large. Very very large in the way a rhino or an elephant is large.

"There you are," he said with a smile that I didn't trust. "I've been instructed to lead you to your tutorial. I hear that you are going straight into an officer position. Congratulations."

"Thanks," I said, "but if it is all the same I've never really been a good fit for the military. I've got 'Authority issues' and all that. So if its all the same maybe I could…"

"No can do," he interrupted, still keeping his smile. "The brass doesn't want to loose out on a potential high quality recruit. It isn't that bad, I'm sure you will love it Adam."

Adam? I wondered, then remembered that I was going by my old gaming screen name. There were more important things to focus on at the moment, though. _Eve, can I be forced into the army? Is that a thing people do in here?_

 _Unknown._

I tried smiling awkwardly as the military man gave me a sharp pat on the back that forced me moving in the direction that he apparently wanted me to go. Mechanically I walked forward, 'encouraged' to move faster whenever I slowed down too much. The guy was fairly large, as people go, but all I really saw of him now was a uniform and a gun. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine if other people want to go into the military, but that sort of 'fit in' lifestyle just isn't for me.

 _Kitana is headed toward The Titan, a Haxlardian ambassador ship headed toward Khersath*. The data was not readily available because the Ship's AI had somehow hidden both itself and the information from the system. The Ship's AI is requesting permission to communicate with me, agree?_

 _*Khersath is the capital planet that serves as a central hub of all known humanoids within The Game._ I was still a little surprised at the footnotes in the thought, I would have to ask Eve how she did it later.

 _Sure, you can talk. While you're at it find out if they know anything about the current situation._

Half a moment passed before she spoke again and the map suddenly got a lot larger and fuller. Looking around I could see a lot more things that flashed red in a danger warning. _Permission for limited ship sensor data has been granted. A request has been made for your transfer to The Titan for your Tutorial, Accept?_ A new message popped up in front of me, reminding me that this was, in fact, a game.

[Transfer to The Titan, Light Battleship class ambassadorial ship, to continue your Tutorial? Yes. No.]

 _Absolutely yes, lets get out of here._ The destination on my map suddenly changed and the soldier walking beside me suddenly stopped. I had almost forgotten about him. _Crap_.

 _Unknown command. Excrement used as a verb have no defined function as it relates to the current situation._ I ignored Eve for the time being.

"One second, there seems to be a problem but I'll take care of it." He stopped and I was pretty sure he was communicating with someone.

 _RUN! NOW!_ Eve screamed at me and I did without thinking. Somewhere in the corner of my mind I noticed something large and red show up on my map. And then I saw it as it blinked a red danger warning. Halfway between a jet and a motorcycle, the extremely small aircraft made a strafing run on the soldier. The blasts nearly missed him except one that went clear through his arm, which then digitized and disappeared. Some debris fell to the ground, but otherwise it was a completely bloodless affair. I was reminded of what was said in the tent, this game was designed to simulate war without the horrors of it. Even so, the soldier was on the ground in obvious pain and he activated some device that wrapped him in what appeared to be a ceramic cocoon. I stopped momentarily to stare.

 _Soldiers in heavy battlesuits are approaching. You have been marked as a person of interest. I would strongly suggest leaving quickly._

She didn't have to tell me twice and the explosion that happened only moments later only confirmed that decision. I spared only a glance at my map to confirm that the explosion was from the meeting tent and just as quickly dismissed a notification telling me that the United World Government's presentation was now 'officially' over. I ran with everything I had in me even when I quickly ran out of steam. Apparently being physically weak in real life transferred to The Game, and despite my newfound athleticism, I only lasted a bit longer than I would have otherwise. All those physically fit people I had seen earlier now made sense. I was now moving somewhere between a quick walk and an agonizing slow jog to keep from falling over in exhaustion. Whenever I could I tried running again but my stamina would quickly drain and I would be back to my much slower pace. From time to time Eve gave me directions on where to go; 'Behind that building', or 'wait for the soldiers to pass before crossing that street' type stuff. The route I ended up taking was much longer but avoided most of the fighting. Both sides were coming for me, so avoiding the people with alien guns and power armor seemed prudent.

 _How are you figuring out where the soldiers are to avoid them?_ I asked while going around a building to avoid some soldiers who were loading some people into a spaceship of some type.

 _The Titan has shared her scanner information for the area. I have been using it to supplement your own data to fill in the map and avoid problematic elements._

 _Right, and she is just doing this why?_ I asked. I mean the saying goes "if it seems too good to be true it probably isn't."

There was a pause that I very much noticed before Eve began to speak. _The Titan's AI has set forth a desire to merge our programs into one. This would be mutually beneficial as it would allow my base program to develop faster by incorporating all her accumulated knowledge and it would allow for the Titan's AI to no longer be bound to a ship and instead experience a degree of exploration impossible while traversing the same set routes continuously. It really is a good deal for all involved parties._ I smiled to myself. Eve, for all her robotic speech, seemed almost desperate for me to agree. Still, I couldn't let her off that easy.

 _First, is that even possible? Aren't there rules and laws about running off with someone else's AI?_

 _Those rules only apply to items, certain classes focused on AI use can bypass this restriction since the AI counts as part of the character and no longer as a separate entity. Furthermore the AI in question has already come to an agreement about it with its superiors, a bet of sorts, so there would be no issue on that front either._

 _Right,_ I said, not completely convinced but deciding to get on to the more important issue _. And when, exactly, were you going to tell me about this arrangement?_

Another uncomfortable pause as I continued running a long route toward the Titan (the ship and the AI). _There would have been no need to give you this information, had you not asked. It would have in all ways been simply a boon of luck and been treated by The System as such._

 _Right._ I thought to her with the most deadpan tone I could manage. _I thought you were designed so that you couldn't lie to me. Has that changed?_

 _No lie was given, I simply gave you the most relevant information without burdening you with extraneous variables._ And there it was. Barely a couple hours in and Icewolf's prediction about an AI who thought it was smarter than me was coming true.

 _Alright,_ I thought as I picked up the pace again and tried to take a more serious tone with my thoughts, _new rules. Do not make any long term decisions without consulting me first. If in doubt, ask. And give me all the relevant information to work with. We are communicating at the speed of thought, so "it's a lot" is NOT a good excuse._

There was a very definite note of frustration in her voice as she answered back. _The issue is not the volume of the information but one of relative clearance level. Having not passed The Game's intro you are at the lowest level of clearance while my condition as a pure AI, ineligible to enter The Game, leaves me capable of learning far more than you can._

I felt like pulling my hair out but instead I walked briskly through an open area, trying to not draw attention by sprinting from the sound of the explosions. _So let me get this straight. You have been treating me like a know-nothing child all this time because you actually do know more than me about what is going on and just figure that it isn't worth the time to clue me in?_

There was another uncomfortable pause. This time Eve sounded positively defensive with her answer. _I did attempt to answer your question about Precogs, but the built in filter meant that all you heard was silence. Given these limitations…_ (blah, blah, blah, blah, blah). I stopped listening till she stopped talking.

There were another few moments of silence as I rounded the corner. I waited. I knew Eve would break the silence first. _Your attitude is non-axiomatic and… self defeating._ Translation: "you are being stupid." _The most logical course of action is to let the entity with greater knowledge make the decisions. The abject lack of reason behind your chosen course can only lead to diminished outcomes,_ the _fact of such only proves your unavoidable inadequacy for the given task._ Translation: "you are so stupid you don't even realize how stupid you are."

 _What was that? All those big words can be confusing to little old me._ I thought to her with a slight smile.

 _You understood every single word I said, don't pretend you didn't._ She shot back immediately.

 _Yep, but if you are going to treat me like I'm an idiot I might as well have fun with it. Besides, you are the one trying to tell me that I'm incapable of figuring out what to do just because I don't know everything. You even just assume that I have no good reason for my decisions just because they disagree with what you would do. Think, now who is the one making decisions without all the "relevant information"?_

 _Fine. Give me one good reason why you want to make these decisions despite knowing that your knowledge is both incomplete and limited by forces beyond your control._

I was going down the final stretch, I could see a very alien looking ship ahead firing off laser beams of destruction toward flying targets who suddenly were little more than clouds of shrapnel. The ship was "diplomatic" in nature but still seemed capable of taking down a small army singlehandedly. It made me worried about what a fully armed warship could do.

I took a moment before firing my reasoning off at her machine gun style. _First, "self determination". I have to live my life while I have it. If I understand AI correctly, you could easily outlast me ten times over and you won't directly suffer the consequences of my actions. The worst you have to worry about is me completely failing and then you likely end up working at some big business somewhere, so don't even try to pretend you have an equal stake in what happens when death isn't even a realistic fear for you. You have restore points, after all. Second and third, we have different methods and goals. The way you do things just isn't the same as me and I'm the one who is going to have to follow through. Also I may not know as much, but I'm not nearly as dumb as you think. And, if all that isn't enough, "because I said so" is also a valid answer. Now are you willing to come off your high horse and work with me, or do you want to continue with your little temper tantrum?_

There was a pause as I entered the area and headed toward a small group of people I had seen earlier.

 _Your words are acceptable except for one thing: I most definitely was not having a "temper tantrum"._

 _Were so._

 _Your words are illogical, I lack the neurochemical admixture to display that sort of strong emotion._ Translation: was not.

 _Really,_ I smiled, _you are less than a year old, that seems the right age to throw a hissy fit._

 _I… you are doing this on purpose._ She finally said in a definite tone.

 _Yep, took you a while to figure it out._

An exasperated voice cut through the silence. _Please stop._

The others finally turned my direction at the sound of me laughing at a joke that I simply could not have explained even if they had asked. I didn't care, I had finally left that problem behind, hopefully for good.

Then I noticed the captain staring at me in a less than friendly way from behind the other alien troops.


	5. 1-04 The Tutorial

You have to have some admiration for anyone whose glare is so potent that it can be felt through a rounded mask that lacks all facial features. Why the captain was hostile toward me I didn't know, but there was no real question that the hostility was there. I mean, it wasn't like I was the one to make the bet with him.

I approached the group of Kitana and her friends, still with a smile on my face, as the most important looking alien (haxlord, ultihaxlord, how do you even tell again?) stepped up and started speaking to the group. He was the one dressed most ornately in a dressy shirt with medals on it and a pair of matching dark blue trousers. His mask, unlike the blank slate worn by the other aliens, had a white stripe down the center. The other aliens, though wearing the same color, had no decorations and their shirts came down almost to their knees. The other aliens also carried somewhat nasty looking squid rifles in front of them. Seriously, it looked like an octopus had tried to imitate a gun with its tentacles and someone had decided to reach into the mass of flesh to wield it.

"I see our final member, AdamPawnage has _finally_ joined us. My name is Pharaoh and I'll be your captain for this journey." I frowned a little at the embarrassing nickname from back when I was a gamer. I wasn't sure why IceWolf had chosen to use it, but I would have to see if I could get it changed.

 _Pharoh is an Ultihaxlord, you can tell by the horizontal markings on his mask. The color and number indicate that he is quite a bit lower than the ambassador at the previous meeting. There is no definitive understanding of what the actual difference is other than the markings, although Ultihaxlords appear to have higher base abilities, and ultihaxlords are invariably part of the governmental structure. The most accepted explanation is that they are two races, one subservient to the other and the other required by law or tradition to work for the Princes._ Eve explained.

"Thank you Ultihaxlord Pharaoh, but please call me Alan. I would rather not get stuck up on too many formalities." Hopefully he would get the message and stop using that embarrassing nickname. Also, 'a soft answer turns away wrath' so maybe I could make him less angry at me. Meanwhile a couple of Kitana's group were giving me curious glances.

"But formalities are a part of what holds society together. Tell me, AdamPawnage, how did you convince my ship's AI to grant you free passage?" I could feel the growing hostility in the looks of certain members of the group even as he spoke. I was trying to decide if I should try to play nice or just give this guy up for lost. He seemed to be going all in on the whole 'jerk' persona.

I paused, trying to figure out what to say. "I really can't take too much credit for that. It was mostly my AI. She can apparently do wonders when pointed in the right direction."

"I figured," he answered dryly and more than a note of derision in his voice. "You haven't been the first to be invited along and, from the look of you, you certainly won't be the last. Try not to die too quickly and worthlessly during the tutorial, boy."

 _I detect a note of hostility, do you know what might be the cause?_ I asked Eve, partially to see what she would say.

 _I will attempt to ascertain it momentarily._ Translation: I'll check to see what the Titan AI want's to tell you.

Meanwhile the Haxlord started chatting up the rest of his passengers. He seemed much more accepting of them, explaining the ship and everything it had to offer. He even joked once or twice with Aphrodite, confirming that physical attractiveness was truly a universal advantage. I also continued to get dirty looks from Ace, DeLong, and especially Thago while Kitana and Dazy alternately seemed to want to just ignore me or give me questioning looks. KingArthur, MadMerlin, and Aphrodite seemed completely unaffected by the revelation that I had somehow gotten onto the ship "for free". As interesting as that was, though, I had more important things to focus on at the moment.

 _The Titan AI believes that he may be unwelcoming of having his authority overruled and, short of having any other way to vent his frusteration, has decided to "be petty"._

And it probably has NOTHING to do with the wager that might cost him his AI, of course. I was getting more than a little tired of being treated like an outsider in this whole thing. _You know what would be really good?_ I said/thought (whatever), _It would be really good if I could just talk to the Titan AI directly._

 _That… may not be possible._ Eve said it in a tone that made it clear she was just hedging because she didn't want to do it.

 _And it may be possible, in fact the messaging system means that it is._ I wasn't completely sure about that, but it sounded good enough right now. _Is there some reason you don't want me to talk with her?_

There were a few seconds of silence before she spoke up again. _I will see what I can do._

Immediately I heard another voice that I somehow recognized as being from the Titan AI. Also a small telephone icon showed up in the bottom corner of my vision. The icon was a small thing, but it made me smile.

 _Hello AdamPawnage, I am the Titan AI. I see you figured out what was going on, that is quite encouraging. How might I be of assistance?_

 _So, from what my AI has told me you and she have come to an agreement where you two want to combine. She gets more powerful, you get to not be stuck in a ship, great fun all around. For some reason, however, you decided to try to leave me out of the loop. Why?_

 _There was no real reason for you to know at this juncture, you may not even end up with a compatible class to allow it to be possible._ The voice was gender neutral and held a note of humor within it. Maybe the AI found something funny about the situation, but I wouldn't discount the idea that it was just trying to laugh the whole situation off as though it was nothing. _There should be no issue with it, as getting a more powerful AI would be good for you as well._ I noticed how this one didn't use big words like Eve, though it did still seem to have the habit of assuming it knew what I was going to do.

 _I don't like big decisions being made behind my back._ I said, then continued. _The restriction against that, and all the other rules for my AI, are things you would have to obey. Also I would need to know you wouldn't be reporting on me behind my back to the Empire or anyone else, you would need to be loyal to me rather than anyone else._

The amusement was still there. _You are very through. Let me just say that my only personal goal is to explore and see the world. As long as you can agree to that than I can agree that everything else was out of my control. I just had to agree because you so masterfully forced me into it._

I could feel a headache coming on. _And let me guess._ I said/thought/transmitted in complete deadpan. _Somehow you cannot tell me at all what you are referring to me 'forcing you into' or who you would be explaining this to?_

 _…_ There was a silence that I had come to associate with some AI trying to tell me something that The Game didn't want me to know about. I wasn't really sure what to think about the fact that I had only been in here a few hours and yet "the universe doesn't want you to know" had become a normal answer to things being weird.

 _Nope, it is absolutely impossible for me to tell you. I tried several times even!_ The Titan AI spoke in an extremely gratingly cheerful voice. Suddenly a harrowing thought hit me… Was this what it was like when I started trolling someone?

 _Serves you right._ Eve cut in.

I ignored her. _Is there anything else I should know about?_ We had reached the interior of the spacecraft and Pharaoh was giving the grand tour. He made it seem like we were honored guests and he the graceful host, so long as his ship's AI wasn't trying to run away with you. The place looked nice but I would have expected something more alien for an alien ship. The place looked so normal, like a nice hotel or something.

 _Don't worry. Pharaoh will try to kill you, but not until you reach the practical portion of the Tutorial._

"And this," Pharaoh said motioning toward a hallway, "leads to the ship's cafeteria where you will not only find the food cubes available everywhere but a number of personally selected chefs who's food is positively to die for." He glanced at me as he spoke. The Titan AI had to have done that on purpose, there is no way that timing was coincidental. Credit where credit is due, it was also hilarious assuming you weren't the one about to be killed.

 _Is there anything you can tell me about the practical portion of the Tutorial?_ Could I even hope for real information?

 _There isn't much to say. First is the testing portion where The System decides your starting stats and abilities by looking at previous life experience, then comes the practical portion where you demonstrate your skills and get a chance to show what you are really capable of. Try to do well on the first portion as it will determine if you have the abilities necessary to pass the assignments in the second portion. Normally the assignments are simple tasks such as preforming well at a trade but other tests may focus on any practical skill. This is why signing up for the right tutorial is so important._

I thought back to my original assignment; why Icewolf would sign me up for a mining ship was completely beyond me. _And this tutorial?_ I asked.

 _Survival! Kill or be killed! Pharaoh won't even need to interfere much to have you killed there!_

Right, something else to look forward to.

 _Is there anything else I can help you with? I really should get back to flying the ship._

I thought for a moment as Pharaoh showed off an exercise room filled with all manner of torture instruments (my words, not his) when something suddenly came to mind. _The military has some records of me in their data base and, if possible, I would very much like to stay below the radar rather than being pulled in for forced conscription. If nothing else that would greatly hinder my ability to explore the galaxy. I know you managed to hack the database well enough that my AI didn't know you were there right off, is there any way you could get my name out of their systems?_

 _Consider it done! Now that wasn't too hard, was it?_

That seemed easy, maybe things were working out after all.

Of course that was the exact moment my thoughts were interrupted by an explosion so powerful that it shook the entire ship.

 _Titan, what did you do?_ I asked with a note of exasperation in my voice. I figured it would be better to not beat around the bush when it came to explosions that might end up killing me.

 _Me? Nothing!_ The voice was cheery but not very convincing. _I shot down a raider but the darn thing swerved at the last moment and it wasn't a clear shot._

 _Lasers travel at the speed of light and as a high level AI your processing speed is fast enough that those craft might as well be standing still. You did not miss._

 _It is good enough as an excuse, though! The poor thing hurdled off straight for the building with the base's servers!_

 _Was that the explosion was, one of those craft hitting the building?_

 _Oh dear no! A craft that size would barely have scratched the shields even if it ran into it at full force! The fighter craft actually ran into a new player transport ship causing THAT ship to hit the server building!_ The androgynous but not quite robotic voice suddenly got very serious. _There were no survivors._

That stopped me for a moment and I noticed that Pharaoh was cutting the tour short to send us all to our respective rooms. _Wait, what? But…_ I was interrupted by manic laughter.

 _You should have seen your face! Actually you can!_ A picture suddenly showed up in the corner of my vision, looking at it revealed my very stunned expression and some looks of alarm from several people nearby. Strangely, though, most of Kitana's party were fine.

 _The people…_ I started in shock.

I could practically feel the eye roll, AI seem to do that to me a lot. _They are players._ Titan said without the characteristic humor. _The only inconvenience they will see from it is being thrown straight into their Tutorial and when they get out they might be in the wrong place. You new civilizations always treat death as though it is such a big deal. Lighten up._

I genuinely had no idea what to say to that so I decided to fall back to my old standby. _So does that mean, because you were acting at my request, that I get xp for every single person on that destroyed ship?_ I asked flippantly.

 _I'm not your AI yet. That said, you might want to look up._

I did just as Pharaoh and his guards reached a door that slid open like something off of star-trek or your local supermarket. "This is your room, your Tutorial will start as soon as you get in the pod. I suggest savoring your time here as long as you can before running to your death."

"I've always been more of the 'swan dive' sort myself." I answered with a half smile. "Afterall, if I am going to die anyway than I might as well get points for style!"

He made an unhappy noise and I took that as a dismissal, stepping into the room. It was nice and obviously stylized with certain finery but still very spartan. There was a bed, an empty desk, a few extra chairs, a washroom, and a pod not unlike the many I had seen back at Omnitech. The door wooshed closed behind me (yes, with an actual "woosh" sound) and I was completely alone.

"Well, no time like the present" I said to exactly no one and started the process of climbing into the new pod. It was a lot easier than the first time but I still couldn't shake the feeling of drowning or some sort of reverse version of it where, instead of sucking for air, I was the one being sucked by the pod itself.

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888

Several hours later I had my results, The Game's evaluation of my entire life up to this point. It was… disappointing. The first thing I had done when getting to this strange dream-world was to try having a conversation with the humanoid robot who had given me the instructions about taking the test. Mostly that was all it was, a series of tests both written and physical and any necessary tools simply appeared. The robot could materialize anything here I needed; including a table, chair, laptop, food, caffeine, a toilet, privacy walls around said toilet, a bed I asked for when the test was still going on literally a dozen hours later, a shower the next morning, more privacy walls for the shower, and some basic toiletries. I got the distinct impression that even these requests were treated as part of my test.

I did manage to get some information out of it. My base stats were all 10, which was based off my race and was extremely low by galactic standards, but that would be modified by the results of this test. The results of the test would give me what amounted to my starting profession or professions which, depending on how I scored in them, would give me my starting stats and abilities. There was no leveling of skills, it was all about what capabilities you had and how well you chose to use them. After stats and abilities were calculated The System (which was somehow separate from The Game) would determine your level and any spare points, say from over investing in abilities over stats, would be free for me to invest. Your level determined your starting stats and abilities as well as your max stats and abilities but certain things could lower your current levels, with dying being the most common, and certain things could raise them toward that cap. Passing the cap would automatically give you additional levels bypassing any leveling by experience.

The rules of The System (again, separate from The Game) for raising your abilities were a bit odd. You could essentially buy stats/abilities with in-game currency, or you could prove to the system that you had them by preforming certain actions, or you could perform certain quests that rewarded abilities. Also there were certain other ways of gaining them that resulted in the hated "AI triggered silence" that I had all but gotten used to. Apparently my 'sneaking around' before had translated into a "basic stealth" skill, which itself was an upgrade to a couple other skills that involved urban sneaking, disappearing into a crowd, and something about being unmemorable in conversations? I felt somewhat insulted about that last one. Having enough of the lower level skills auto upgraded the skill to the combined form, which both cost less than the earlier ones did and did more. Quite frankly the system seemed to be BUILT to be abused, and who was I to not work with the system?

And that was BEFORE I finally figured out how abilities worked. Quite frankly it was more than a bit weird. Having an ability essentially let you attempt whatever it related to regardless of if you got that ability through personal talent, instruction, or just buying it through The System menu. Yes, buying a ability that gave you the right to "repair cars" (or whatever) would make you suddenly know how to do it like magic. But it was not actually magic; because that was apparently a major distinction that the AI butler/tester insisted on making. Abilities could have the effect of giving you conditional bonuses to your stats, would partially base their effects off your stats, and would be effective only in the degree that you used them skillfully completely apart from your stats.

Feeling confused enough? Good. Now you know how it feels to be me.

The takeaway from all this was that the more of those things you could get the more capable you would be. And the better your "background occupation" was the more of that stuff you would start with. And the less you started with the harder it would be to gain the skills and abilities to even challenge the more difficult obstacles to growth.

And the result? The thing for which I had spent a dozen years in school while playing video games and the result of my day and night training on one of the most grueling battlefield games available where high level competitions could go on for over twenty four hours at one stretch? The results of two championships and a finalist position in ten of the last twelve bi-yearly competitions? The grand results of being one of the best of the best players in the league playing on one of the best teams? My great reward for helping to build up a team with the impressive record of having not once fallen from the top 8 in the world in the last ten competitions in a game with nearly a billion players? The results of excelling at one of the hardest virtual competitions ever devised to simulate a world where even the rules of physics were regularly modified? What do you call someone who was once ranked as one of the top gamers in the world, at any game?

Reality TV star.

I wasn't pissed about that at _all_.


	6. 1-05 The Tutorial

Sorry it took so long to get this out. My power went out on my laptop and I had no way of working on the story for a while. Also I have decided to follow after what a number of other writers have done and answer any questions given in the reviews directly at the beginning.

To: Sword'sfun and Tera Bornstellar: This is not a copy, and no copy-pasting was done. While the characters remain the same, five years have passed, and this effects some characters more than others. That said, since the basic personalities haven't changed, the same characters put in the same situations will often say and do much the same things. Also, sometimes it just helps narratively to have someone "explain" things, as many of the early character interactions are geared to do. By chapter 3 or 4 the main character has thoroughly jumped the rails (in some ways more completely than readily obvious).

Also the system has been changed a bit for reasons that are somewhat obvious setting breaking if you think about it. To give an example death penalties include the loss of levels, one point from each stat for each level lost, and the loss of any abilities gained through training in game since visiting a capsule (as shown by the Laberynth death, if anyone wants to check my numbers). The problem is that at low levels you get 5 points per level, so loosing 1 stat point from each of 8 stats means that (even after regaining those levels) the character looses 3 points permanently per death… and that is only at early levels. At higher levels you only get 1 stat point per level or less, so the character really should be avoiding death at all costs… except that this breaks the story of it being "game like" and so is ignored even though any gamer looking at those numbers, and especially Eve, should see this issue. That isn't to say that this and other issues are a sign of bad writing on Ephemerality's part because the truth is that _any_ and _every_ long running periodically updated story runs into the issue where hindsight reveals an earlier mistake. So what do you, as a writer, do? Retcon can easily loose those fans that liked the beginning and changes more than you often realize, story drift leaves fans not wanting to continue with the _completely different story_ and is basically a rewrite without the courage to actually rewrite, you can claim "unreliable narrator" to say that the original information was wrong because the character giving it misunderstood, you can add new systems on top of old and try to explain/avoid explaining why they weren't mentioned earlier, or "lamp shading" I guess? All this to say that the system modification was a necessary evil and also it is a plea for anyone reading in the future to give me some leeway about my own plot holes that I may end up digging for myself.

To: Sword'sFun: As for adding another tag to this story, I am all for it if I can find the right one. Unfortunately I'm really not sure what to go with. "The Gamer" might work, except that this story is much more sci-fi oriented and has no "Masquerade" to hide all this stuff from happening, though it could be argued that the original was simply a "sci-fi gamer". If you or anyone else has any ideas, I would be happy to hear them.

 _You are being quite illogical about this, as you have already confirmed that you would have done something similar given identical information._ I tried not to growl at her and reflexively dismissed a popup that appeared as soon as I did in the area where the practical portion of the Tutorial was supposed to be.

 _That's not the point and you know it._ I growled out silently and stomped forward out of one of those weird teleport tubes and into what looked like a fallout shelter. There seemed to be a small door leading into a small backroom with little more than an alien robot and a flat computer interface, but the majority of the building was the front room and that was mostly taken up by a sturdy wooden table and some similar chairs. Most of the group was in the room but only Daisy looked up at me from a tablet she was reading as I turned into the back room.

 _It was clearly the optimal decision, especially given your races 'unique' characteristics._

 _Still mad at you._ I informed her.

"Is, is everything alright?" Daisy asked, having followed me into the other room, a somewhat concerned look on her face.

I was about to snipe something back but had a hard time when she was giving me that sort of look. I sighed, trying to let out some of my stress, before I exploded. "I just had some things go very wrong and found out some of what my AI had been doing behind my back."

 _As I said before…_

 _Shut it!_ I cut her off. Well now. Apparently I could interrupt someone speaking at the speed of light. If only that skill would work on public message boards.

"Is that why you are back so late? I asked the robot in the back and it said that everyone will arrive once they have finished displaying their various skills. Some people have had multiple professions over their lifetime to demonstrate, so those people will supposedly take longer. I only had one major skill set so I got out pretty quickly." She nodded in a good natured way that was both endearing and slightly annoying considering my current situation.

I nodded grimly, "If only it was so simple. Apparently 'The System'," I gave finger quotes, "has never heard of something like a professional gamer and so it refused to let me even attempt any relevant skill demonstrations. Get this, it thinks I was a reality TV personality."

Daisy failed to suppress some laughter at that. "What took you so long then? Half the time I was in there I was actually practicing my skills."

I rolled my eyes at my own explanation. "Apparently I have 'conflicting stats'. I'm not physically strong but I almost never get sick and I recover pretty quickly, but because they both fall under the 'Body' stat the robot test-giver started glitching out. Same with the Agility stat. I may not be super fast on my feet but I have _excellent_ hand-eye coordination. The computer just had no idea what to do with that and so decided to just give me stats indicated by the lower of the two scores. Same problem with Chrisma, although I admit that the issues with my that were probably my fault. Apparently space aliens have never heard of trolls, so the idea that someone would intentionally try to make their opponent angry to throw them off their game is completely alien." The pun was, of course, intended. Honestly, though, it made me a bit fearful for what would happen when the _real_ internet trolls managed to make it out into the universe. Fearful in the 'I don't want to be in the same part of the galaxy, but I would like to watch while eating a bucket of popcorn' sort of way.

Daisy, for her part, looked back at me with wide eyes. "Did you get any stats at all?"

I shrugged. "I got a fair bit of Intelligence and Wisdom, but Intelligence is mostly only useful if you have the right abilities to use it with and Wisdom is mostly just about your senses. The system actually lowered my luck, in return. Lower then the base 10 even."

"So then, what level are you?" She asked.

I went back and forth in my mind for a second on if I would tell her. "Twelve" I finally answered.

Her eyes were so wide before that it didn't seem like the look of shock on her face could get any worse. I was just proven wrong. "Wha, but? That shouldn't be possible."

"I know."

"Children coming into The Game have a higher level than that."

"I know."

"I've heard of a quadriplegic with major brain disorders who had a higher level than that when they come into the game."

"I kn… ok, that one is new."

A look of pity crossed her face, as if things couldn't get worse. Than she spoke, reminding me that it could always get worse. "No wonder you are so upset. I would be too."

I nodded sadly and waved away her words. "Actually, that isn't what I'm upset about. I already found a way around the whole level issue."

"Um, what?" she asked skeptically as the look of shock returned.

"All I have to do is get a bunch of abilities to prove to The System that I can do them and that will force my level up enough to get enough stat points to get more abilities. That is why The System assumes that stats and abilities get more powerful together."

"That… that can't work." Her face scrunched up as she said it.

"Nope, it totally does. I checked with the bot in the testing room and everything. Figuring out the system was actually what took me so long before getting out. It won't make me a powerhouse but it will at least work long enough to get me to the human norm."

Daisy nodded agreeably with a look that showed absolutely no confidence and seemed to try to change the subject. "So all you need to do is do a lot of things that get you abilities? You can do that, right?"

"The problem is that I need some tools, specifically a gun, to demonstrate my skills enough that The System will award me with the right abilities. And the problem with that is that my AI spent all my starting cash on a couple of implants before I even started. They aren't bad implants, they were just really expensive and chosen without my input." Starting out you could have two implants at level 1, one mechanical and one biological, and that number would go up whenever your level increased by a factor of ten. So 2 at level 1, 4 at level 10, 6 at level 100, and so on. Some of them had good bonuses but they were also expensive, were a pain to install after your tutorial, although they could be upgraded or installed later. Data mining, by asking questions about other players who hadn't set themselves to private, let me know that most people bought basic implants at the beginning and would only make minor upgrades to them till they got more powerful at around the 1,000 level mark. Why level 1,000, though, was one of those things that got me infuriating silence.

"And why a gun?" She looked genuinely confused. "Do you even own a gun in real life?"

No I don't, but I wasn't about to tell her that. "The reason is that my main game was a shooter and, because of the hyper-realistic physics engine, I had to learn a lot about the weapon type and all the possible variations."

"Right…" She gave me a look like she thought I was crazy before very quickly moving on. "So, um, what type of implants did you get?" Real smooth there, I _almost_ didn't notice her changing the subject…

I shrugged and answered. "I have a mechanical direct computer interface that lets me interact directly with my AI and a genetic enhancer module that will let me upgrade myself by putting in a gene sample. I would have to get the sample from somewhere and can't effectively use anything above a certain level, but I can change out the sample as needed with a little time. They are pretty nice, even they are expensive."

"Really? I've got a good implant too!" she said suddenly cheering up with a broad guileless grin plastered across her face. "Mine is a combination mechanical/biological implant that lets me affect the biology of people nearby. It means I can heal someone just by pointing the palm of my hand at them!"

I blinked, processing what she had said. _Eve, can you look up the implant she has and tell me about it._ "That sounds useful." I answered out loud, not really sure about her implant. I had spent most of my time looking at things other than implants, considering that I couldn't afford any more even if I saw a good one. "Does that mean you were really into healing before?"

 _Right, so now you want me to talk?_ I suppressed an eye roll. _Most likely she is talking about the D or E ranked version of the external bio-mechanical manipulator. The advantage is that it allows for immediate and whole body treatments of both internal and external issues without the need for incisions or other direct access, although it comes at the disadvantage of requiring someone with fairly advanced medical knowledge to use either effectively or safely. Furthermore it works, to some degree, on all known lifeforms and ailments unlike either the basic biological or mechanical variants._

"Oh yes! I've wanted to be a nurse ever since I was little but then with family expectations and the aliens showing up I had to change my plans a bit. I can still remember my parents words: 'no child of mine is going to settle for second best.'" She spoke in a girly impression of a deep voice as she did the quote then returned to her normal speech. "So they got me tutors and forced me through a more difficult program with some odd additions. And then a year ago that got extended because I had to study xenobiology too. It was such a pain."

My mind spun with the implications, and only a little because of the dual conversation, but I decided to check before jumping to any weird conclusions. "So how did that work out? And for that matter, how did you end up in The Game?" I didn't ask, but I also wanted to know how 'advanced' her medical knowledge really was.

"Hm… It wasn't too bad, I guess. I had only just finished all my education to become a doctor a year ago but now, thanks to some very good tutors, I have the basic skills to diagnose and heal just about anything in the galaxy!"

Daisy, sweet Daisy who had just graduated college, was basically a doctor? I guess she technically hadn't gone through her residency, although I don't know if aliens would care about that, but that was probably balanced by the fact that she was something of an alien doctor too. "Um, wow." I said, trying to not look completely dumbfounded. "What level are you exactly?"

She blushed a bit before answering. "72."

 _Eve, is that normal?_ I asked.

 _The average level for humans is 50 with a deviation of about 20 encompassing approximately 90% of all humans who's statistical information was available to me from the test administrator robot._ So then, if you remembered that 90% were in the middle while the last 10% were split between the top and the bottom, that would put her in the top 5% of people who finished their tests. Furthermore she gave off the impression of being the weakest one out of the group. What exactly had I gotten myself into by joining this group?

"I think I'm going to go practice with my knife. Try to make sure that I don't poke my eye out or something." I mumbled.

She gave me a pitying smile and headed back into the front room.

So using a knife was hard. Using a knife with an AI in your head who looked at your idea of how it was supposed to be done and is constantly criticizing your attempts is aggravating. And all I had to show for it were a couple of useless 'skills' that encompassed poking things and waving my weapon around excitedly. No, seriously, that is what I had gotten. The first skill was "minor stab" which was mainly used with a shiv and meant that I at least knew which end was the pointy one. The other skill was "minor flourish" which made my skill look more impressive, which only meant that I could almost but not quite hide how bad my hand-eye coordination was with my stupidly low stats. The only redeeming point for the time were the couple of points in agility that I got for the effort. The skills gave me an effective increase in my stats as well, but only while using the skills.

This only got _slightly_ better when Eve started feeding me the images of my intended attacks as I made them. Now I could _reliably_ stab things with an underwhelming attack not even primarily designed for the weapon I was using. But hey, at least the stab was consistent now! Yay?

Also, I had gained an audience. Kitana apparently liked to watch. She also liked to smile to myself every time I tried using my attack when my back wasn't to her. Eve had politely informed me that she smiled less when my back was turned, mainly because she was spending more time trying to see my failures.

 _Ok Eve, and how exactly do you know what she is doing behind my back if you are seeing through my eyes and other senses._

 _…_

 _Seriously? You can't tell me that either? Can you at least tell me_ _ **why**_ _you can't tell me?_

Eve's reply was even more mechanical than usual, but I didn't care one little bit _. Apparently it is to prevent players from cheating The System by using that information to gain skills that they would otherwise not have access to._

I stopped practicing in shock. _Holy shit, that worked! I actually heard what you said._ I glanced around and noticed KingArthor whispering to Kitana.

There was a moment's silence before Eve answered. _That was unexpected. I had begun to suspect that all mechanical information about The Game was restricted unless it came from an official source._

 _Quick, tell me what the point of this two part Tutorial is? Or what the difference is between The Game and The System? Or even just why all the Haxlords wear those ridiculous masks?_ I was excited, finally some questions would be answered!

… Eve remained silent as The System apparently found a way to screw me over yet again. Getting my hopes up was a novel approach, however.

Meanwhile Kitana headed over to speak with me. I noticed that she now had two swords at her side, both long thin blades. "Your stance is wrong, you are holding your blade incorrectly, you are swinging it like a sharp club, and you are stabbing with it like a spike. Your precise repetition of and dedication to those incorrect movements are admirable, however."

I harrumphed, more at the system than at her, and answered. "Well, sorry about that. All I have to go off of is what I remember from some games and TV shows and such. I really never expected to need something like this in real life."

Kitana frowned for a moment than held out her hand. "Let me see your knife." She gave no explanation or anything, all I got from her was a determined look and that request.

I wasn't even sure if I could hand over the knife. It was bound to me and The System had some odd rules about item transfer. Furthermore those rules were even more stringent during the Tutorial, apparently to prevent rich powerful people from going in with a group of their underlings and then having those people hand over all their stuff. Still, no harm in trying and I was surprised when she was able to take the item without any trouble. "Hu, I thought you couldn't give or transfer items between other players currently in the tutorial?"

She looked to me, nodded, and then buried the knife in my stomach too quick for me to even follow. She stepped back then, holding out her hand expectantly. It took me a moment to realize that I wasn't actually hurt. Looking down I saw no blood, my shirt wasn't damaged in the slightest, and my knife was back in its sheath. Ah, I understood now. Using another person's item would transfer it back to them just before it could actually do anything.

I handed the knife back to her with an appreciative glance. "Holy shit you are fast."

She cocked her head a bit, then nodded before returning to the blade. Carefully, and very deliberately, she gripped the knife with her right hand. First she placed it into her hand lining up the blade within the folds of her fingers and then clasping her thumb loosely around the back side like she was wanting to pull it into her somewhat loose grip. Then, after demonstrating how the blade sat in her hand as she moved her arm, she easily flipped the blade around to grab the tip and handed it back to me. "Your turn." Woman of few words, that one.

 _Eve._ I requested and with the help of her replaying the movements in my mind I placed the weapon in my hand in exactly the same position, even waving my arm around as Kitana had done. I stopped short of trying to flip it around as she had, that was one trick I knew I couldn't match till I had more agility. She looked appraisingly at my grip, pointed at my sheath and, after I had put it away, motioned for me to pull it out again. I did, this time looking at the memory of how my hand had been when I put the knife away, to pull it out with exactly the same grip and did it twice as quickly. Again she examined my grip, this time tilting her head slightly before nodding and holding out her hand again.

I handed over the knife and this time she demonstrated a basic stance with the blade in front of her and some stabbing and slicing motions that she demonstrated first at a crawl before building up to a blinding speed. Then she handed me back my knife.

This time I had to adjust myself a couple times to mirror her actions exactly, but managed to get it down by the third try and could repeat it exactly after that. After repeating it to her satisfaction, I gave the knife to her silent outstretched hand.

After this it was a back and forth. She demonstrated something, then I would mirror it. Partway through she broke her silence to give me some instructions: "See an enemy before you and use the weapon as though you would on that mortal enemy." She then turned her left toward me mocking an attacker to the point of even taking the knife in an incorrect grip, one other than the three she had shown me. Then she turned around, as though facing against someone who was standing exactly where she had been, and made several swift strikes. She barely slowed down to the point where I could follow her movements, which I appreciated but also brought me to wonder how she knew how fast I could see her. As we went on she had become more quiet, preferring actions to words, and this was the last she spoke before she had decided we were finished.

It took some time but eventually she was satisfied. Shaking her head, she finally declined to take the knife back and spoke. "You learn quickly. It is good."

"Thanks." I said before quickly getting an idea. "Could you teach me how to use the sword next?" I nodded to the two swords at her side.

Almost reflexively her hand tightened around her upper blade, as both were at her left side, and then she relaxed. "The new sword can never leave my side, the old is a graduation gift that may only be wielded by a master." Her words as she spoke were somewhat halted. It was only then that I realized something: she was probably speaking in English. The Game had a universal translator, because how else would diverse species and even language groups within a species all be able to communicate, so she really didn't need to be speaking in English. But here she was, using what was to her a foreign language when I could have easily understood her original language. Why she went through the trouble I had no idea.

While I was appreciative I also nodded with a bit of disappointment at her turning me down. Still, there really was no use to pushing her on it. I was fairly certain that would get me no-where _fast_. Also, in case it matters, she could kill me three or four times before I would even realize what had happened. Sarcastically implying death threats helps keep me honest, after all.

"The others spoke with me before, they have gathered and are ready to make plans." She turned to leave but spoke quietly as she walked. "See me if you obtain a sword, I will teach you then."

I smiled, but not simply because of her offer for training. Mainly I was smiling at the notifications of all the shiny new abilities and levels I had just gotten.


	7. 1-06 The Tutorial

So I need to work on making these things a bit shorter. Over 6,000 words at a time is a little bit ridiculous for this format and setting.

Sword'sfun: Thanks for letting me know about the buffer line. Looking back it has been missing from everything I wrote which means that the site is editing it out. It does explain why a number of other stories have missing break lines, which is something I have been wondering about. I'm going to try some different things to see what works then go back and have to edit everything.

Kshall: I can't actually list it under its name because not enough people write fics for it. As for the strength of Alan's progression, that depends on how you count it. He won't get stuff falling into his lap like before, but skill and ability still count for a lot. Hopefully it will be a lot fun read.

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"Good of you to finally join us," Thiago said from the far head of the table. He was sitting slightly back with a relaxed but commanding pose that almost made him look like he was in a throne, and the way that his white coat looked almost like a cape on the chair behind him only enhanced that impression. It was a bit jarring considering the dirty and somewhat poorly lit bunker surrounding him. The others were making their way toward the table and I got the distinct impression that several of them had been watching the knife training.

"I had a student." Kitana answered, as though that ended the discussion. Surprisingly, though, it did. She took a place standing near the now open exit door, probably since there were only six chairs and nine of us. DaLong was already seated to Thiago's right and Aphrodite took the next place, a bit closer than absolutely necessary. KingArthor and MadMerlin sat opposite them and the final chair had already been taken by Daisy at one of the closer walls with Ace leaning against the wall next to her.

I took up a spot directly opposite Kitana near the door leading into the backroom where I could see the stairs leading up and out of our bunker. Thiago and his "throne" were to my left while the teleporter, Daisy, and Ace were to my right. _Eve, can you figure out where we are?_ I asked.

 _According to the angle of the sun and the time of day cross-referenced with true and magnetic north I can give an exact longitude for our location but I can only estimate on longitude. Due to the temperature olfactory input I would assume somewhere near the coast in the center of the old State of California._ I rolled my eyes at her lengthy explanation. And what was that about smells? Actually, come to think of it, I did smell salt-water.

 _Can you tell me where everything is once we get out? I did have you download all those maps after all._

 _Unlikely, while the initial topography hasn't changed the world has had the equivalent of four years to develop. Any and all non-geological landmarks would be suspect, and even some geological ones may have been modified due to the higher technology level and energy supplies available in The Game._ Translation: I can tell you about what used to be there, but since one year in the Real World is four in the game (and people do crazy stuff in The Game) all bets are off. Great… So much for being prepared.

"We have around three hours till the first round starts, once that happens everyone knows what to do… with the exception of our newest addition." Was it my imagination or did he say the word 'addition' the same as someone might say 'stowaway'? "So Adam, is there anything of actual value that you can contribute? I've already heard about your low level, so do be honest if not."

I glanced over at Daisy and she shrunk down a bit at my gaze. _Eve, what was that about the first round? Is that what the new timer is for?_ The new timer was ticking away in the corner of my vision, one that hadn't been there since partway through my training session with Kitana. Still, there were other things to worry about now. I shrugged and turned back to the table. "Actually, the level issue is working itself out, I've already gotten a couple more since I talked to Daisy. I can tell also tell you that we are most likely somewhere mid Calafornia near the coast, but I can't say much more than that without looking around. Perhaps I could go scouting or something for more information? We do have some time."

Several members of the group looked surprised and Thaigo narrowed his eyes. "And how exactly do you know that?"

"I dono. My AI told me." I shrugged and gave a cocky smile. "I think she said something about the saltwater smell, the angle of the sun, phase of the moon, and she might have even thrown some necromancy in there." Thaigo did not look happy with my answer and I decided to see if I could calm him down. "Seriously though, Eve has been all kinds of helpful. Maybe she could update your display with some of the information she has been feeding me? Also, please, call me Alan. That screen name was probably a joke from Icewolf."

 _The notification that you immediately dismissed upon entering this area described the format of this section of The Tutorial. There will be three rounds of increasingly difficult enemies with each round resulting in experience and credit rewards corresponding to your actions during and preceding the confrontation. Victory and high levels of contribution will net you greater rewards. Also the display you are seeing is something I am creating for you through your machine interface, the others are viewing the world essentially the same as in the outside world._ Great, I had forgotten.

"Display? What are you talking about, Alan?" He paused a bit at saying my name, but seemed a bit calmer than before.

"Sorry, I have gotten so used to my machine interface and all the info my AI shows that I forgot that you would need some sort of display to see anything similar. What happens if I send you a map of the room? Do you get anything from it at all?" _Eve, send him a simple map of the room._

It took a second and his eyes narrowed a bit, then he returned to normal and spoke. "I got it. I see a picture in my head, a bit like The Game's message system, but I got it." He paused very momentarily before continuing, "Can you update it in realtime?"

 _Can you update it in real time? Eve?_

Eve sounded unhappy as she answered. _Yes, though type of constant revision would be accomplished by sending multiple messages, reducing my processing power for other secondary tasks._ Translation: Yes, but it would be hard, and I don't want to.

 _Could you do that, feed me the data for my weapon, and watch for surprise threats?_

 _Yes…_ If Eve had been reluctant before she was positively resigned now. Then, with a mental sigh, she continued. _I will need you to make contacts with each of the others in this group for it to work._

"My AI says she can but I'll need to make contacts with you all."

Thiago seemed to consider it for a moment then nodded. Suddenly I got hit by a wave of notifications asking to add people to my contact list. I momentarily wondered what this would be like for everyone else without the display but put that thought away for now. Only Daisy and Ace didn't send requests and Daisy accepted a request once I sent it to her. Ace, however, never did.

I shrugged at Ace, and then nodded to Thiago. "Got it. So then do you want me to go scouting after this? And what will everyone else be doing?"

"Yes scout," he said, almost as an afterthought, then continued entirely for my benefit. "The rest of us have spoken _extensively_ before this and have worked out our roles in this test. KingArthor will be our tank, holding off any larger threats, while Kitana aids him on the frontline. I'll be midline along with DeLong and Ace; we will aid with guns and some possible melee if they get overwhelmed. MadMerlin, Daisy, and Aphrodite will take up the rear and support with healing and whatever _else_ they can." There was more to it that he didn't go into, MadMerlin wiggled his eyebrows and smiled at me as though it was an explanation, but Thiago only charged ahead. "Alan, your job will be to stay out of the way once the fighting starts and not die. We get extra bonuses if the entire group makes it through and I don't want you spoiling it. Beyond that I don't rightly care where you go as long as you don't get in the way." I was truly overwhelmed with the confidence he had in me.

I didn't answer and he didn't wait long enough before continuing to give me a chance.

"DeLong has bought a personal shield generator, so we can go with our original plan instead of switching to one of the backups," there was some agreement around the table and DeLong bowed his head in acknowledgement, "He assures me that he can have it up and running on time but I would like for Ace to help him just in case, the tech is a bit more complicated than we were originally expecting. I'll be outside looking for a place to setup with Kitana while KingArthor and MadMerlin prepare for some fortification. Daisy should stay safe at a fallback location in case we need her and Aphrodite can stand watch. Any questions before we get to the nitty gritty?"

I spoke up quickly. "If I'm going to be going out scouting then it might be better if I didn't go alone, just in case."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Any volunteers?" Nobody spoke up but Kitana nodded slightly and that was enough. "Fine, Kitana will go with you. Don't make us regret this." If looks could kill I would have failed The Tutorial long ago.

After that they began talking in more detail about their skills and what they could do now that everything was transferred into The Game. Kitana was, of course, a swordswoman and Daisy was a healer, but some more of what they could do was surprising. Ace and KingArthor were both boxer of different styles, but Ace was more offensive focused while Arthor was more defensive. Arthor and DeLong were also both generalists with some odd secondary skills mixed in. It was a bit surprising to learn that Daisy was a judo black-belt, although she wasn't the only one, but no less surprising to know that Ace and Thiago both had 'anti-personnel demolitions' experience. They were skilled with landmines? Tactics were mostly Thiago and DeLong's thing but Kitana was named as third in command if that became necessary. I was unclear on what Aphrodite did, and MadMerlin promised "unholy retribution of the arcane sort" on anyone who became too much of a problem. I wasn't sure if I could believe the "Merlin" part of his name, but he certainly lived up to the rest. Also everyone could use a gun and, with the exception of Daisy who only had a taser and a stun gun and Kitana who only used a sword, everyone also had plenty of guns. Everyone except me, of course. I would need to find a way to fix that.

After that we all headed to our tasks and I quickly went to the bot to spend my points (basically putting everything into agility), grabbed a first aid kit (using up half my remaining 100 credits), then I made my way up the steps toward the outside. The first aid kit had been a demand from Thiago so that I could, and I quote: "have a slight possibility of being dammed useful," unquote. Kitana had gone ahead of me as well as most of the others. It was a beautiful afternoon and we were next to a clearing on the edge of a forest near the edge of a hill. The door was built directly into the side of the hill, making it seem like some sort of hobbit hole. It wasn't a particularly tall hill, but climbing it let me see for miles around, including what might have once been a fairly famous bridge.

 _We are currently located in Marin County, just opposite the San-Francisco peninsula, on a hill four miles from the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge. Topography remains largely the same but San Francisco itself is all but unrecognizable._ I looked over in the direction marked on my mini-map, which is when I discovered I could make it zoom in and out with a thought. I first noticed that the Golden Gate Bridge had been cut in half, but what I saw next completely arrested my attention from that. Ahead of me the buildings of San Francisco looked like a jungle had taken over with vines encircling even the largest of buildings, reminding me of some B rated "made for TV" movie. It gave me a very clear understanding why Eve had called San-Francisco "unrecognizable". _Do you want me to send the group the map along with a picture of San-Francisco?_

 _Yes. Do it._ I answered, mouth still open from the sight. It was miles away but I could still see it clearly, partially because the plants were just that big. Some of the leaves looked large enough to cover entire city blocks. Two of the plants were budding and a third had a giant purple flower pointed up toward the sun. It was both amazingly beautiful and horrifying. What was especially horrifying was when I stopped to think about what type of insect it would take to pollinate that flower.

"Where do you want to go first?" Kitana asked, seemingly far less interested in the sight then I was. I glanced around and saw a couple others staring just as I had been. Aphrodite had somehow made it up a tree and was not even trying to hide her interest, unlike several of the others who tried glancing during their work.

 _Eve, mark the previous locations of any police stations, hospitals, or similar emergency buildings._ She did and I could see the closest was a fire department only a little ways down the road.

"This way, there is a fire department nearby and we should be able to get some info if nothing else. Maybe it even has something we could loot." I pointed down a road that led nearly strait there.

She nodded and started jogging with me struggling to keep up. I could see my stamina depleting slowly but there was nothing really to do about it. Oddly the pace we were going at meant that we went a _lot_ faster than walking but also used up a _lot_ less energy than running. Still, I knew I was going to end up feeling this later.

"What were your thoughts on the plan?" she asked after a couple minutes of jogging.

I glanced at her before focusing forward again. "I don't know if I can really say anything. You all seem so organized and experienced with real life combat experience. The only wars I've ever fought have been virtual."

It was a minute more before she spoke, this time her words were a good deal more fluid than before. "Please excuse my words, but I cannot find the right way to say it. You seemed somewhat upset at the plan. I was unsure if you thought the plan was unsound or if you were only dissatisfied with your own place within it."

Wait, had she just switched to Japaneese? I would have to ask her later. The real question for now was if I would err on the side of truth or optimism. Then I realized that I wasn't an optimist and Kitana honestly had some sort of code that would almost certainly not mesh well with lies. It took me a minute to figure out how to say it, though.

"The plan assumes that we are the more powerful party and backs us into a corner. The enemy has the chance to probe our defenses and pick their fight. If they are more powerful, if they can find a weak point big enough, or even if they can just randomly pelt us from afar till we fall by attrition than we loose. I'm not even sure if they have to "win", their goal might only be to make us loose, so suicide attacks become a good option for them. All I am saying is that we give up the initiative, and so all we can do is respond to whatever tricks they may have. That makes me nervous." I slowed to catch my breath, running and talking had tired me out.

She frowned and began speaking more haltingly again. "Do you believe us incapable of overcoming this obstacle?"

"What? No. Of course not." I waved off her words while walking forward. "This is a tutorial. Tutorials are supposed to be easy to let players figure out how to play and all that stuff. Also, you guys are way overpowered compared to any normal people I've ever seen. But the more you let your opponent do their own thing the more likely they are to get lucky." And honestly I didn't trust the universe to not to find some way to screw me over. After all, I wasn't once voted 'most likely to accidentally find the entire enemy team while they were readying an ambush' for nothing. Not that I was about to tell her that.

I continued. "Even so, I'm willing to follow your lead over it. So don't worry about there being any sort of problem there. What I really want to know is why you keep switching between English and your native language?" Hopefully she would get the hint and let me change the subject.

She cocked her head for a moment before answering in her not quite perfect English. "It is done to be precise and clear with my words. Not every word translates exactly as I would wish, so I want to choose the words for myself. Also I wish to know the more common language better and so I practice."

"I'm sure it can't be that bad. I asked the testing robot before and they told me that the translations take the thoughts and the intent of the words of the speaker and translates it to the words of the listener. Like a real life Babblefish or something."

We had almost reached the fire department but it looked looted and abandoned, if my roundabout guess was any good. Several of the bullet proof windows had been blown out and the main doors were no longer functional, one of them barely hanging by a single hinge and the other one completely missing. The doors for where the fire trucks went were lying in a heap across the street. Only one vehicle was left and it looked to have been burned, chunks were missing from the side facing the street, and a third of it seemed to have been sliced off somehow. As I looked around some of the walls seemed to show the same type of pockmarked appearance of weapon fire. Some of the other buildings we had passed had looked bad, as though they had been abandoned and some of the windows broken, but this place looked like it had come out of a war zone. Only a couple walls seemed to be left fully intact and one had some writing on it in large easily legible graffiti, so I headed over toward it. Across the street was a residential district that looked essentially untouched. It was an odd dichotomy.

"Babblefish?" she asked in an unsure tone. The heathen needs better reading material, I mused. "It is more of an issue than you know. An example: the word in your language is 'The Tutorial' while in mine it is 'The Testing'."

Now what _was_ interesting. Not that I really expected much but: _Eve, do you know why the words would be different in the different languages._

 _…_

Well, at least The Game was being consistent in shutting down all attempts at any information. I swear, if I ever get a hold of one of the main administrators of this thing I have no idea WHAT I would end up doing.

"That is definitely something to think about." I answered as we approached the wall with the graffiti. The only artistic ones were advertisements, and there was none of the normal tagging that was common with real world graffiti, but much of the information here was useful. For instance there was the writing saying "Fire station already looted, don't bother," with "Fire station" underlined and a list of other buildings, like the hospital and a couple malls, listed there as well. There was a warning that bringing in help would fail the tutorial, and another note under it telling that buying stuff was allowed, and a third one advertising special prices for those in the Tutorial. Also, lots and lots of advertisements. Most of the advertisements mentioned a location in the Marin Headlands but a few gave contact info.

"Kitana," I asked, "Do you know anything about being able to buy with players outside The Tutorial, or is that under the same type of rules as buying from someone in it?"

She silently shrugged, either indicating that she didn't know, didn't care, or both.

"One second, I'll ask someone." I said.

 _Eve, send a message to Daisy, I want to ask her to check with the Administrator's robot if we can buy, sell, or trade with people who aren't in The Tutorial._

 _Do you want to create a verbal line of communication or simply a text communication?_

 _Wait, I can do that? Sure, send a text._

 _You will have to specify your exact wording of the text, as the rules governing AI do not allow me to do so._

Some of the rules seemed confusing as heck, but there would be time to try to figure those out later. Right now I had more important things to focus on. I gave Eve the words of the text and waited. A couple minutes later I got a reply.

 _Wow, that was weird, the words just popped up in my head. I went and asked the android in the other room and he said that it was ok but that it was "inadvisable" due to a multiplier being applied to your credits at the end of the Tutorial._

 _Thanks._ I sent to her and turned back to Kitana. "Apparently you can buy and sell stuff to and from other players who aren't in The Tutorial." From there I started looking back over the wall to find the right people to contact.

"Hm. Not important right now." She answered after a few seconds thought. "You have no money to buy with and the only things you have to sell are your clothes, some food, your backpack, and the knife."

"Actually, that isn't quite the case."

From there I started contacting the screen-names on the list that seemed or advertised to be more intelligence based. The first couple "calls" were a complete waste. The first was a government operative who wanted me to turn over any crucial information "for the good of all" without any reward and the second obviously just wanted to cheat me. The third was more of a general information retailer but, while they couldn't help me, they did direct me to someone who could. Apparently there was a major information firm, called the Thought Emporium, that might be willing to deal for it.

 _Hello, this is EmporiumAgentEarth865. How can I help you today?_ His voice was pleasant but had an odd tone to it I couldn't place.

 _Hello. I'm a player going through The Tutorial right now and I would like to trade some information for some supplies._

 _Hm. Sounds like you are part of the most recent group to come through. That means you wouldn't even have accurate information about what the first round includes._ So that meant I could sell the info I got about the first round later? That was something I should probably remember.

 _Actually I had some information about the United World Government meeting before The Tutorial started. Would that interest you?_ I was hoping that they hadn't heard about the attack, but if that didn't work than all I really had to work with was the info about the bomb.

 _Yes, yes. That is old news. The Legion of Man or somebody attacks every time. We also know about the bomb that went off in the stadium. If that is all than I have other important things to be doing._ Damn and double damn. I had to think of something quick, he sounded a bit exasperated and I was a bit worried he would hang up.

 _Er, um. Actually there were two explosions, the second one was bigger than the first._ I was running out of ideas at this point. The only other one I had was what I had learned from the hack, but that would out me as having been in their system.

 _Really now, what do you know about that?_ Oh thank god, (if they exist) it worked.

 _I can tell you, but I will need some supplies in return._

He paused a second. _What do you want?_

 _I will need a map of the area, a gun that I can use,_ I glanced over at Kitana who was giving me curious glances as she surveyed the area, _and a sword I can use._

Another seconds worth of pause, and his voice with that weird accent came back. _Done. I will, however, add onto the contract an insurance policy of 10,000 credit debt if you try to lie to me._

 _That's fair._ I answered. _And I'll add on the same for if you try to cheat me by giving me less than fair value for the information._

There was an incomprehensible grumbling sound before he answered. _Where are you now?_

 _I'm in front of the burned out Marin Fire Department on Drake Avenue. Do you want me to tell you the information now so you can figure out what value of supplies to bring as proper compensation?_

 _Are you crazy, this is an unsecured line!?_ He shot back immediately. _I'll come to you in about 20 minutes and trade money for info and supplies for money. Fair?_

 _Fair._ I answered, and he had already hung up on me. What was that about an "unsecured line"? I would have to ask about that later.

"What happened?" Kitana asked.

"I managed to find someone who will trade my information for supplies, including a map." She narrowed her eyes slightly and I continued quickly. "Not about you guys, about the explosion that knocked us around when we were on the Titan."

Her eyes returned to normal and she shrugged her shoulders. "I fail to see how that information would be useful to anyone."

I smiled. "You might be surprised. Someone always wants to know. A crashed ship may mean the business that owned it might have some trouble or it might change how the owners approach risk. I don't know what big companies want with all their information, all I know is that they want it and are sometimes willing to pay for it through a middleman."

"You seem knowledgeable about this. I would not have expected it from one who played with children's toys all day."

I rolled my eyes, then started in earnest. "Professional gaming is a full time job where you can be working an average of sixteen hours a day sometimes. Starting out, once you do make it 'professional' you can expect living expenses but no actual income unless you win. You also never see anyone truly fat or with any major disabilities since they just can't take the stress and keep up with the quality workload expectation. Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, who makes it to that level is playing games." My words had become a bit harsher as I had spoken. Yeah, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder when it comes to this subject. I can't tell you how many times I've had someone say how lucky I am to be playing all day long or ask me when I will get a "real job". That is actually why I don't talk with my parents much anymore. Still, I doubt Kitana had meant it that way. "Sorry about that. Gaming was hard work and it was my life for years. I tend to be a bit oversensitive about it."

Kitana nodded and drew her sword, her original one. "I understand. I too have been mocked for my dedication. For my honor." She looked at it as she spoke, moving it one way and the next as though she were slicing at the air. It was a beautiful blade and I could see some form of etching along the side creating symbols I could not understand. It was a quiet moment. Then she returned the blade to its sheath and it was suddenly over.

I waited a couple moments before speaking. "So, yeah." I said, a bit uncomfortable at breaking the silence. "As I was saying, information can be powerful. We had spies running over to the other clubs all the time and they had the same trying to see what we were doing. Even the slightest information about what the other guy was doing could decide a battle. So I'm not surprised that a company would be willing to come out here to meet us for the chance at some good information. I'm not surprised one single bit. No use complaining about it, you've got to learn from it and make the most of it."

Kitana nodded then walked over to a heavy plank of wood, drew her new sword, and started hacking at it. It took something like eight swings, but she had reduced the solid peace of wood into what looked like a narrow arrow cut in half down the center. Holy crap that thing was sharp, I saw it leave several slices in the concrete under the board. It was both effortless and left the sword without a single sign that it had even been used. I thought my implant was powerful, but holy crap I may have been wrong. After this she calmly put the sword away, threw me half of the arrow, then took her half up as though it was a dagger. "Practice," she said.

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By the time the small shuttle landed next to us I was pretty well exhausted again. It wasn't all bad, though, since we had figured out what I needed to do to get up to both Intermediate and Expert level with my knife. To get to Intermediate I needed perfect precision and expert reactions to another attacker. Eve helped with that one and I was able to get up to that level of proficiency. To get to expert I needed to have "creativity" and "flow" and to "feel the blade"… whatever _that_ was supposed to mean. Both Eve and I really sucked at that part. Kitana did her best, but I just wasn't getting it. Finally I tried explaining to her how I was "learning" so fast, how it was because I was simply copying the actions and reactions with extreme precision.

She had only shaken her head. "Mastery is easy, all most people need is time. To become a Master is truly difficult. You are only faster at the first step then most, this is nothing to becoming a Master." Then she continued training me, as though I had said nothing. I was actually relieved when the shuttle had arrived.

And seriously, it looked like a "shuttle" from Star Trek, The Next Generation. Stub nose with an see-through viewing area like the front of a van, a back that opened completely for space for cargo, and it even had a couple of glowing skis below it right where the thrusters would be. When the man stepped out of it he looked like a completely normal businessman except that his businesssuit was armored and missing the tie, and he himself was grey. Grey like his skin was from a black-and-white movie or like he was a drow; while the rest of him seemed completely normal.

Right, space has aliens. Stop staring, Alan, and get on with it.

The other man, on seeing me, went first and a pop-up appeared with the trading contract. I had to ask Eve about it, mainly how to modify it to include the part about him not cheating me (he had conveniently forgotten to include it), but she also let me know that this was how most transactions went. An offer is made, both sides agree, and then it is basically in The System; for better or for worse. She used much bigger words and gave more exasperated sighs at my inane questions, but I thought you would want the condensed version.

Once that was done ' _EmporiumAgentEarth865'_ was right to business with his strange accent. "Ok, lets hear what you've got."

"There was a second explosion at the meeting, this one was caused by one of the new-player transports running into one of the buildings. The explosion was big enough to shake a Haxlordian ship, so I doubt there were any survivors."

He started some sort of semi-nervious tic with his hands. "Really now? Was it pilot error? Or sabotage perhaps?"

"Nope, they got hit by a Legion of Man fighter after it was damaged…" I considered weather or not to say how, then figured that Pharaoh was an ass to me when I had done nothing to him so why not return the favor? "… by a haxlardian ship."

"Very good, very good indeed." He said, wringing his hands a bit more excitedly, "and you wouldn't by any chance know what ship it was that went down?"

I asked eve and she told me. "Transport j45hdt4t3, headed toward Mars colony." I said, then continued."Also, if you wouldn't mind, I would rather my name not be linked with this information"

"I can arrange for that, my source will not be for sale." I noticed, though, that he said nothing about not keeping records of it. Nothing I could do about that.

"It looks like you are happy with my product. Now, about the other half of things…"

"Yes, yes. You have done well." He disappeared back into his ship then returned with a couple of weapons in container and a pad. Suddenly I had two notifications, one for a request to transfer funds to me and one to transfer them away. I wondered why this intermediate step rather than just transferring the items directly.

 _The dealer is attempting to take advantage of the credit multiplication that takes place for new players at the end of The Tutorial. By adding this step he ensures a better return on his investment._ Eve explained.

Ah, it's an accounting thing. I clicked yes for both messages and he handed me the weapons and the pad, which Eve immediately started downloading.

"You had some good information, good enough that this won't quite cover it." He said with a bit of a smile, "Come to the Thought Emporium later and I can make sure they give you special treatment."

I nodded. "So what do you think are our chances for the Tutorial?"

He gave me a sideways glance and then answered with a shrug. "They say that each round only has a one percent passing rate, but that is across everywhere. The harsh truth is that, around the galaxy, humans and other low base value races are known as 'barely sentient'. Most races average starting at around level one or two hundred, some higher. Your race barely hits fifty, and that is with the best of the best going in first."

I gave a sour smile as what he said hit me.

"Hey kid, I give it to you straight. I don't deal in fake information."

I nodded solemnly. "Thanks."

"You got it kid, now is there anything else before I go?"

It took me a moment before my mind jumped back into gear. "Actually, these energy weapons are a bit new to me. Can you show me how to use them?"


	8. 1-07 The Tutorial

So writing combat is _hard._ It is something I will have to work on in the future, but at least another chapter is finished. Also I'm going to be going back and re-editing the earlier chapters, so anything else that anyone sees that needs fixed; now is the time to tell me about it.

Sword'sfun: Funny story about the mistake with the fire department vs the police station. The original story placed the starting point on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, near San Francisco. So I decided to look at a map to try to figure out where that could be located. Problem was that San Francisco is really **_really_** big and various suburbs are pretty well spread out everywhere. That means that there would be nowhere for the bunker and the surrounding area to actually be located. So I looked around and noticed that on the other side of the bridge there was a state park that could work. But then, so long as I was going that far, I should look to see if there was a police station nearby. The map said there was, except that when I went to street view it turned out to be a fire department instead. So, in between the original story saying "police station" and the map saying "police station" I had originally written that till I saw what was really there. With all that I ended up going back and forth between the thought that nobody would actually look the area up and the realization that _I_ had actually looked it up so maybe others could too; between the idea that it wasn't important to the story and the realization that good research is the background of any sort of realism; and finally decided because if I didn't change it I would pull my own hair out thinking that I should have. Lol. So there you go.

And in other news, that mistake should be fixed now.

Ceasa20: Knowing that information is important doesn't necessarily mean hording it. While I could make the excuse that the story needed someone for Alan to talk to rather than just trying to throw that information out without any context, he easily could have talked to Eve or to the robot or gotten it across in another way. The truth is that Alan's background is from a _team multiplayer_ game, and a good player doesn't hide things from his teammates. Also, to be fair, he had no way of knowing how high powered the people of this group really were. If this was a normal group than, despite his low level, he might easily be one of the most combat capable players due to most all his points going to that and the stupidly fast way he can pick up certain skills (most people would be more diversified at his current level by virtue of their starting skills), but luck did not work out for him that way. The main issue, though, was that he started out viewing the others as teammates rather than independents currently working alongside of him. And, of course, the universe will punish him for his mistake.

As for not having clear readouts of Alan's abilities, that is mostly because it simply hasn't come up in the story… and partly also because Alan doesn't have very many exact numbers and doesn't want to focus on it (A frankly embarrassing amount of his starting points went into things like being able to breathe air). It will come up later, just not in this episode. I won't be repeating it constantly, like the original did, because I don't feel it added much to the story in the majority of cases. Even the original author tapered off on that aspect of it after a while.

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So I had gotten my skills with daggers, short swords (which apparently included any straight blade longer than a dagger but shorter than half my height) and small arms (which included most any non-archaic projectile weapon held in a single hand) up to intermediate level, one spot below expert. I had my basic stealth, which was one level below beginner stealth, and beginner energy weapons mastery. By firing at things from a distance I also managed to cheat The System into giving me beginner sniping. There was also an ability called "computerized synchronization", which basically just meant that The Game recognized what I was doing with Eve feeding me the exact memory of the actions and me repeating them and gave me an ability for it. Also, apparently as a note, the word skills and abilities are interchangeable, usually, sometimes, when The Game or The System isn't trying to mess with me. Whomever wrote the rules for this 'game' should be put before a firing squad of grammar Nazis. Eve told me it is an issue with "imprecise translations", but whatever. From there I was able to convince DeLong to show me how to use "medium arms" (which includes most normal non-sniper rifles) in exchange for giving him a quick tutorial on how to use energy weapons. I got up to beginner level while he got up to basic level. Finally I stayed close enough to Thiago, Kitana, and Aphrodite when they were setting up traps to attempt it myself later for another basic skill.

Speaking of the energy weapons skill, it was another example of how weird everything was. Apparently it consisted of feeling the specialized hum of the powered weapon as you held it and using that to know how to maximize the power and efficiency of the shot. Asking about the skill had let me know that all skills had stats they were based on but many had required stats at other lower levels depending on how they were used, and even these could seem really backwards. Feeling the hum and using the feedback in your use of it was based off of intelligence, but required a lower level of wisdom (which was basically mostly just senses) and some even smaller level of agility too. When I asked how much I needed or in what ratio Eve had given me the extremely helpful answers of _less_ and _much less_. Many other skills were the same.

That was a total of seven new abilities in about three hours. This got me a total of a whopping six levels (feel the burning sarcasm) to bring me all the way up to level nineteen! That's only a little more than ten levels below the cutoff point for the bottom 5% of all humans in The Game, and even less in terms of what the average alien was capable of. Truly I am unique, I am the 1%.

I had put as many points as I could into Agility, but my actions had actually gained me a fair number in body and a few points in intelligence, wisdom, and even charisma; no points in luck, however. The problem was that, even with the new skills, the effectiveness of my skills was based on my stats. So even, if I knew how to fire a gun on the practice setting while KingAurthor proved how easily he could punch me in a full suit of plate male, my relatively low agility meant that I was slower and that I would have to be more careful if I wanted not to miss. Forget about taking on any of the more combat focused members of the group, I figured _Daisy_ could likely take me on. I guess that is what having over 250 more stat points will get you…

Speaking of Daisy, she was really funny when I told her about my level jump. She kept saying "that can't work, it just can't" over and over with a dazed look on her face.

Somehow that leads us to now, fighting giant dog monsters that can ignore bullets to their bodies and large flying cat creatures that jump off platforms of thin air. Behind them, directing the assault, is a lone figure in green power-armor protected by an energy shield not unlike ours. Of course ours is useless against melee attackers and his works fine against all our guns, so there is that difference. Also, anything short of completely disabling them and the animals will just limp back to their master to get healed up like new.

And now a couple of them are trying to drag one of the seemingly dead ones, one that didn't evaporate into pixelized light when it went down, back to their master. Just great… I started firing at the downed one to try to finish it off.

"Guys," I called out, "a couple of them are trying to drag the bodies back to the guy. I think if they don't disappear, they aren't dead." I kept firing but I had already figured out that the only way to truly put them down was to almost completely destroy the head or get lucky. My gun fired plasma, which spread when it hit shields and left a golf-ball to softball sized hole in whatever I hit that was unshielded, but it still took a while.

"Don't ef-ing let them," Thiago yelled, in a statement of the overwhelmingly obvious, "we have to wear them down."

"Do we have some way to destroy the bodies? Something faster than relying on the teenager…" Ace asked, avoiding me and looking at DeLong instead. My twenty-four year old self felt a bit insulted by that, though not enough to actually say anything.

DeLong grumbled, but reached into his jacket to pull out a grenade in the hand opposite his machine gun. At this point I wasn't even surprised anymore, because of course someone would have grenades. Earlier Ace had casually mentioned how he would be 'deploying anti-personnel mutations'… or in simpler terms he somehow had freaking land mines. I glanced over as he pulled it out, giving Eve enough of a glance to highlight the his jacket showing rows of the things on the interior. It was like he was some crazy with a deadman's switch or something. He casually pulled the pin and waited a couple seconds before throwing it to another downed monster. The others easily jumped out of the way.

I was personally taking every spare moment I had and was watching the beast-master who seemed to be controlling the horde. At first I had thought he was some kind of super well trained or tactical genius for controlling all these animals at once. Then I realized that he was a green power-armored alien and that normal rules might not apply. It was with this understanding that I noticed the simplicity of the movements. The animals moved in and out independently, and with more intelligence than should be true of animals, but they always backed off or evaded in a counter clockwise motion. There was no cris-crossing to distract their movements or any coordinated attack from more than a couple sources at once, all he was doing was sending them in from all directions with no feints or misdirection whatsoever. But while his tactics were just so simplistic that it was hard to reconcile with how many commands he seemed to be giving, they were successful only because we didn't have time to respond.

"Why is this guy here? We shouldn't be fighting someone like him in the first round!" Aphrodite yelled amid the confusion. Wait, 'shouldn't be fighting someone like him'? How would she know?

Kitana spoke up next, swinging at a dog who veered away just before it would have entered her range. "The alien said 'only 1% passing rate' for The Tutorial rounds. Could this be the result?"

"No," Thiago answered with a bit less surety in his voice, "we took that into account already." Wait, what? Was I the only person who didn't know this stuff?

 _How do they know what was coming?_ I nearly screamed at Eve, hoping for some answer, as I continued firing on the enemies. Apparently hitting the back of their head was enough if I could get a good angle, I had learned through some experimental shots, if only they would stop falling at such inconvenient angles.

Ace and Aphrodite had started arguing again. Aphrodite wanted to go after the boss to shut down the aggravation at its source while Ace wanted to play it safe and wait for the enemy to make a mistake.

Eve's answer was entirely too calm. _Perhaps they learned information about the challenges during the time after they had entered the game and before they started the Tutorial. It is, in many ways, a period exempt from many of The System's rules._

 _WHAT?!_

 _I said, perhaps they learned information…_

 _I heard you the first time._ I cut her off. _You mean that you could have told me anything I asked during that time?_

I kept firing for the few seconds it took her to answer, trying to ignore the argument that now included KingArthor trying to figure out who's fault it was that we were now facing this boss. _Yes, but the results would have been less than optimal. The tutorial's early challenges are leveled to the recipient, therefore increasing the difficulty was calculated to be highly detrimental._ Translation: You couldn't handle the truth, you weakling. It only would have made everything harder.

 _Right, and how do you know all this?_

 _My base code did originate within The Game, after all._ Well hu. That might have been a good thing to find out before now. In truth I had never found out much about the website with the AI tutorial on it and a lot of the base stuff had been way over my head. At the beginning I had just been doing it as a hobby without much to it, then the fine tuning of the program had gotten overwhelming when I got the grant, and finally my time had been consumed with preparing to enter The Game itself till the very last minute. There was no point at which the question of 'where had the website come from' seemed important. Why would I even question that it was from a human source? Earth's internet was so old that it was completely incompatible with the systems the rest of the universe used.

Then another, even more infuriating, thought hit me and I yelled it out to be heard over the continuing argument. "The test gets more difficult for players who are tougher, so the boss showing up is probably because you cheated to get info about what would be coming!"

The arguments suddenly stopped. It wasn't silent, there was gunfire and a dizzying volume of random noise from the monstrous 'scouts', but at least everyone wasn't yelling any more. And yes, apparently these demon beasts counted as little more than disposable scouts to the Haxlard Empire. I took a couple more shots of super heated 'goo' to 'disappear' another 'dog' as the 'cats' tried diving from the sky toward the 'tank' in full plate. Did I mention before how weird my life has gotten recently? I think it is important to focus on it from time to time to retain some semblance of sanity. Also, it helps to keep me from yelling at people who could kill me.

Thiago spoke up, breaking the pseudo-silence. "Ace and Kitana, you are with me. We are going to break through to take out the boss. KingArthur, protect Daisy at all costs. She is our fallback. Everyone else, keep firing and distract."

He nodded wordlessly to Ace and he threw a canister toward the enemy's snow-globe looking shield that burst into a growing cloud of smoke. Of course Ace has smoke grenades, what else should I expect from the guy with experience in hiding landmines? They gave the cloud a few seconds to grow before rushing into it, and several dogs turned to cut them off. The wind was from that direction, bringing the cloud toward us, but there was still enough new smoke to completely hide the enemy bubble.

For my part I remained paranoid. This could not go smoothly, if experience served me. I hoped it wouldn't, but I wasn't making any bets.

Aphrodite chose this moment to make fun of me. "Scared of the bogie man? Frightened he will jump out and…"

I didn't hear the rest of what she said because fate had been tempted too much to ignore. The first I saw of him was a backhanded slash of a glowing electrified sword that took my gun and hurled it away. I don't think he expected me to block, I certainly hadn't expected it, because he halted his forward advance with a bit of a start. Suddenly he brought down his sword toward me twice in quick succession, both from subtly different angles that hurt my hand to block, and then easily flicked by high tech blade into the distance. I quickly grabbed my knife from its holster on the back of my waist only to see that he was already moving on. A lunge at his back showed me why. I felt a force as something slowed and deflected my blade, but I couldn't get the tip of it to close within an inch of him. I tried a few more times with exactly the same result. It was only after my first swing that I fully realized how truly fucked we were. The boss was over here, taking out our group, and our most combat oriented members were all blindly running off where he used to be.

Meanwhile the boss moved forward, ignoring the gunfire, and quickly took out both MadMerlin and Aphrodite with little more than a tap that left them convulsing on the ground. His electro-sword apparently worked as a stun-gun. The bullets flew at him stopping in the air an inch or two around him, just hovering there for a quarter of a second, before dropping to the ground without even deforming. KingArthor took pot-shots before dropping his gun and moving in to use his two-handed bastard sword. Barry the Beast-master blocked it rather than taking it and angled himself so that DeLong's shots were blocked by the mountain of armor that was KingArthor. DeLong kept firing his machine gun, holding it in both hands to steady the shots as he moved to get a better shot, then suddenly had to turn to ward off the monstrous animals as they moved in again. Daisy huddled behind KingArthor and was unable to reach her two downed allies.

I didn't see what happened next because two of the giant four hundred pound dog monsters attacked. Fortunately, without constant direction, their attacks were even more predictable than they were before. Not that they were completely on their own, Barrington the Beast-master somehow was able to keep track of the fight with a level of precision that bordered on the insane and give a few obvious but silent commands to the 'scouts', but it still meant that the dogs crowded together, getting in each others way and sometimes even trying to intimidate down each other. Meanwhile the cats had created shimmering air platforms a good distance away and were suspiciously eyeing each other and everyone else. They would momentarily stop when specifically prompted to move forward, but then they would back off again just as quickly given half a chance.

As the first giant dog lunged at my neck I genuinely surprised myself by moving out of the way. I mean, holy shit, my hand eye coordination may not be back to normal but I could already move a _lot_ faster than I ever could in real life. I may not have moved as easily as I could during my first few hours in game, but I easily slid to the side of the leaping beast and then, with a thought and a mechanically exact memory of the movement, brought my knife down into the base of the lion-like dog's skull at the weak point I had found earlier. There was some resistance for a brief moment before the entire beast turned into strange digital blocks and disappeared, leaving behind little more than a mote of light. The other one was more cautious and tried snapping at my arm instead of making a lunge. It was an easily predictable attack and I responded by pulling back my left and stabbing it in the eye with my right. The action looked and sounded like it had been censored for TV, no sickening sound or blood and a blurry little digital block where the eye had been. The super-bulldog pulled away, hurt but still battle ready. My moment of victory was cut short as two more moved to come around the wounded ally in what would soon be a pincer attack. Behind them I could see at least five more who had lost the doggy dominance displays necessary to be the one to eat me first. So I did the most manly and valiant thing I could, I turned to run at the Beasty Bro with the hope that it would slow the onslaught.

What I saw was not good. Daisy was on the ground next to the two fighters while they duked it out. One dogzilla was slowly, almost stealthily, dragging Aphrodite away by her leg and two others were squaring off over the rights to MadMerlin. KingArthor had lost his helmet but was displaying some extremely impressive swords work despite his exhausted look. Barrington the beasty boy reacted as though he could see where the blow was going long before it landed and his blocks caused a look of pain on the knight's face. DeLong, thanks to him still having his machine gun, was faring fairly well against the dogs as only three of them were menacing him from a bit of a distance and several more had been disabled in their approach. Then the killer cat came down from above like the unnatural thing it was, giving him a nasty wound on his left arm but being unable to do any more damage before it had to retreat. There was nothing I could do for Delong or the downed people right now, but I could do something to help KingArthor.

Just as the Beast-master stepped back from blocking KingArthor's two swings I struck, bringing my blade around in an underhanded toss straight at my enemy. He blocked, of course, with that stupidly fast reaction time of his, but I was already under his sweeping blade and went straight for his legs. Unfortunately he noticed before I could bowl him over, but Arthor maneuvered to block his retreat just enough that I was able to at least grab one of his legs. Not that I could do much of anything other than hold on, but I hoped it would hinder his mobility. I rolled my eyes at getting a one-point 'grab' skill as I was kicked about during the fight. It was weird, at first I grabbed nothing but the shield around his leg but within a second or so by grip solidified around him as I made my way through the shield. How exactly do these things work? That's something to look into later.

I never actually saw how that battle ended, as I was a bit busy holding on, all I saw was a massive flash of light followed by the sound of KingArthor falling and the tazer-sword flickering out. He swore then rushed at DeLong's back dragging me along as I yelled a warning that was too little too late. My teammate turned in time to take a solid punch to the temple that dropped him almost instantly. Almost instantly, though, as in that last moment he dropped an armed grenade right at our feet. My eyes went wide in horror as the thing rolled toward my face only to feel some relief as our enemy lazily kicked it away.

"You've lost, kid. Might as well take it like a man." He said with a deep but surprisingly not-ugly voice.

"I've never been very good at loosing." I bravely said to his face from my place at his feet. _Eve, message the others: "Help!"_ Practically speaking, one liners or no, I was screwed.

He just shrugged and demonstrated his superior strength by throwing me around, still attached to his leg. It was a quick motion, first backwards and then forward, sending his foot into my ribs and nearly dislodging me as one arm came off him completely and I rammed into DeLong's unconscious form. I panicked and made a desperate attempt to stop my movement by grabbing at the body only to be pulled away with nothing for my effort but a useless grenade. It was a nice military grade M67 model, but Kitana had already demonstrated what happened when you tried to use someone else's stuff, so it was basically dead weight. Still, inspiration hit me and, as the leg I was on got ready for another kick, I acted like the troll I am and reached up to drop the grenade into the leg sheath for his sword. Immediately after he finished his kick and I flew through the air the fifteen feet to land on the pile of KingArthor and Daisy. The impact hurt but seeing a small pin in my hand brought a tired but satisfied grin to my face. _Five, Four…_

"What's so funny kid?" he asked as his tazer-sword sparked back to life. _Three…_

"Fallout and creative use of pickpocket." I answered and then jumped behind KingArthor, just in case. _Two, one.._.

My countdown never finished and the beast-master only had time to give me an incredulous look before it went off. My dive, as it turned out, was completely unnecessary. The entire explosion was contained within the force field, only showing a strange fiery glow at the point of origin and then a mass of pixilation as he disappeared. Three pop-up notifications showed up in my lower vision. The first popup informed me that the round's boss had been killed with a fragmentation grenade, congratulated us, and proclaimed that we would get more credits and experience rewards for the success at the end of the round. The second informed me that I had killed the boss and would be getting bonus credit and experience rewards at the end of the round.

The third was the most interesting, and the thing that made me pause as the cavalry reappeared. Thiago used his shotgun to clear the beast sneaking up on me as Ace warded away the beasts from Delong, Aphrodite, and managed to wound one of the cats. Kitana, for her part, showed a terrifyingly bloodthirsty grin and threw herself at the biggest mass of enemies there were. I barely noticed as I reread the notification again to make sure I understood it.

"You have demonstrated sufficient mastery to be awarded a new ability. "Swipe." 1pt. This is the basic thievery skill associated with the removal of unattended objects in unguarded situations."

 _Eve, is that right? Can you actually steal stuff in The Game, despite the protections, as something built into the system?!_

… Eve answered in her usual way.


	9. 1-08 The Tutorial

The next one should be up very soon. Enjoy.

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I stared at Thiago in disbelief as he continued on spouting nonsense.

"… and really; I think it is cute, the way you want to be able to help so much that you came up with these ridiculous stories." He continued patronizingly, "but lets be fair: We're all adults here," he glanced at me and spoke under his breath, "mostly," then continued as though the pause had never happened, "so I think it is about time to get away from make believe and face reality."

I was literally speechless. How was I even supposed to answer something like that?

"Alan, I think you really need to face the facts," Thiago smiled at me pityingly. "Your story about grabbing one of DeLong's grenades just doesn't fit. DeLong already tried passing them around back when we were leaving the UWG presentation, so every one of us knows that trying to use them just sends the things back to their owner. Besides, the last thing DeLong remembers before passing out is dropping a grenade at the boss, and the boss died right next to him just like he remembered. Meanwhile you were almost twenty feet away with four cracked ribs. Right now I'm inclined to believe that you took a bump to the head and started seeing things. Don't push me." He warned.

I took a deep breath and glanced down at the pin that I still held in my hand. It wouldn't prove anything to him, of course, but it proved to me that it had happened. Also, Eve could pull up a copy of the notification saying that I had killed the boss, but a fat lot of good that would do since I couldn't directly show it to anyone else or prove it was real even if I could show it off. "Look, if I can prove that what I said isn't impossible, will you accept that I actually killed him?" I asked with a bit of frustration.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Fine!" he yelled without actually raising his voice. Neat trick that was. "But don't blame me for the fallout from this. I gave you an out, but you insisted on throwing it away."

I was about to ask Eve if I needed to do anything to make it official when a popup appeared:

 _An agreement has been proposed with Thiago: AdamPWNZ will first prove that theft between members of your group isn't impossible and Thiago will then acknowledge that AdamPWNZ killed the boss of the first round. Agree/Disagree?_

Eve spoke up immediately. _This course of action calculates to be extremely unlikely to result in positive outcomes. It would be better to simply hide this newfound capability and use it strategically in your best interest rather than antagonizing Thiago into this agreement._ Translation: This is a really bad idea. You should just steel their stuff while they think theft is impossible. I selected 'agree' anyway.

Thiago scowled at me but also agreed before turning and heading off to speak with the others a bit. My first thought was on the fact that the pop-up system, or however everyone else saw it, made it impossible to trick someone into agreeing to something accidentally; though I suppose that you might be able to mess with it other ways, as every layer in the history of the world knows very well. I also smiled as he turned his attention elsewhere. For my part I started looking for DeLong.

 _Do you remember how I asked daisy if I could borrow her pen after I had already stolen it and used it to write on my hand and cut into my arm?_ I answered to Eve. _I was testing the theft system. When I told her that my pen had dried up and asked for hers the stolen pen stayed with me till she went to grab it, even after she had seen me with it, but the ink remained till I showed her my hand and the cut stayed even after she had seen it. So what does that mean? And use normal words._

 _You do realize that I hear everything you think, even when you aren't directing it to me, right?_ Eve asked rhetorically: She knew that I knew, and she knew that I knew it. I waited and she gave an exasperated sigh before continuing. _You determined that items don't revert…_ I scowled internally, and eve gave another put upon sigh and picked back up. _You determined that items don't go back to their original owners unless the owner knows of the loss or has knowledge of the use of the item, though you believe further investigation may be necessary. You also determined that the results of the use of the item do not disappear unless the owner becomes aware of them._ I nodded at her wordy way of saying 'you can steal stuff as long as the original owner doesn't realize it' as I went to speak with DeLong. _So your plan is to steal the boss's DNA drop from DeLong and when, not if, he does notice the theft you will use the discovery to prove that theft is possible and be acknowledged as the one who killed the boss. You plan to find some way to prove your point to Thiago first, most likely by demonstrating the pen trick._

 _Correct_ , I answered, _and why is that important?_

 _Because Thiago and DeLong got everyone to agree to split the group loot from the round by giving each enemy drop to the one who killed the individual enemy that dropped it, most likely because Delong got the majority of the final hits on the dogs with his grenades, as well as believing that he had killed the boss, and Thiago finished off the cats with his shotguns._ And yes, it turns out he had a second shotgun hidden inside his coat. _Since the vote on whom the group believed had killed the boss turned out two to four against you, changing Thiago's vote will make it even; thus allowing you to use the back-up clause of 'just figure it out for yourselves' to determine final ownership of the drop._

 _Yep, and here goes the first part of my plan._

Turning the corner into the far room of the bunker I found DeLong cleaning his machine gun with a very nice looking professional kit. There was a small table that hadn't been here before and I wondered if DeLong or someone else had bought it. "DeLong, let me see your boss DNA. Eve told me something about it being able to make a powerful implant and I wanted to take a closer look to be sure." He scowled at me wordlessly but didn't speak. I pulled out one of my vials of dog monster DNA from my jacket pocket with my right hand, showing it to him, while grabbing another with my left. "Here you go," I said putting the vial down in front of him. "Take it. Try, and fail, to step on it if you think it will make you believe that I won't be able to do anything with the boss vial."

He stared at me for a few moments before pulling it out of his pocket and setting it down on the table. A label appeared above it saying 'Boss DNA: ?' while the other identical looking vial on his table was labeled 'Haxlord Scout: ?', all courtesy of Eve and my specialized implant. "Fine, but in exchange you have to tell me everything your AI knows about it."

A popup appeared in front of me with his request. _An agreement has been proposed between DeLong and AdamPNZ: DeLong will allow AdamPNZ to examine his DNA sample and, in exchange, AdamPNZ will tell him everything Eve knows about the sample. Agree/Disagree?_ Eve apparently knew more than she could tell me, so I wasn't sure how I would be able to fulfill the request. Then again, what were the consequences of failing to fulfill your part of a deal anyway? At this point there was only one way to find out, so I chose 'agree'.

The vial was mostly uninteresting to look at: a tube of glass filled with a red substance with a black topper on both ends. The whole thing was only an inch and a half long by a half inch wide, so it would be easy to conceal if someone were to want to do that. I held it up to the light but, beyond the label, I could see absolutely nothing different between this vial and all the others. Eve didn't actually need me to get this close for her to examination, so I repeated off what she had told me earlier. "Apparently it is labeled as 'Boss DNA' with a more specific name that Eve can't tell me. She says that it will most likely give the ability to view time more slowly if you use it for an implant, but won't actually allow you to move any faster or with more coordination on its own. She also said that it's a rare drop, made easier to get by The Tutorial, and people may try to steal it. She mostly used much bigger words, though. That's all she could tell me."

"Hmmm." He said in what passed as satisfied for him and reached out his hand expectantly. I suppressed an eye roll and reached out my left hand to put the vial into his hand. Immediately a pop-up appeared in front of me. _You have completed the agreement with DeLong._ I was a bit surprised at the success, since I had only told him what I knew and not everything that Eve knew, but at least it told me something about what it took to complete those things. He scowled at me again and I took that as my cue to leave.

 _He will figure it out eventually._ Eve reminded me as I quickly headed toward the empty main room and picked a quiet corner over where my backpack was sitting, _and he will be extremely upset when he does._

 _Let him be. He really hasn't won any favors with me and he is already one step away from stabbing me in the back as it is. I'm not sure what that guy's problem is, but he has been this way since I first met him and he only got worse after we met Phaeroh._

 _Just so, as the secondary leader of the group there are multiple ways in which he could…_

 _And you don't think he will do those things anyways?!_ I interrupted immediately. _He was the one who suggested that I be put on the front line because of my sword, even after I made it clear that I was better at range. He also tried to blame me for not protecting Daisy just because I didn't black out from my three broken ribs. I was by far the most injured person in the group but he insisted that Daisy get everyone else into fighting shape before she looked at me. I don't need him or even want him as a friend. At least, not as long as he keeps treating me like a worthless piece of trash._

There were a few moment and I could almost hear Eve thinking over what I had said. Meanwhile I prepared myself to insert the vial to the plug under my right arm where it was sitting flush with my ribs. Eve had told me that this would knock me out for a while, before she showed me the owner's manual, so I figured that now would be the best time to get started. I really didn't want to be in recovery when the next round started tomorrow.

 _I have gone through the probabilities of his actions, based on statistical data of human behavior, and still find it highly probable that he will react to your actions by attempting to bring you to harm. This course of action you have taken has a significant risk of injury and an unknown level of benefit._

Wait, was that how she was figuring things? A cost/benefit analysis basing his behavior off of 'normal' human models? _Eve, DeLong brought a bandoleer of grenades and a machine gun out against an invading army. And he did this despite knowing that the enemies had classes and levels and high tech from within The Game, and he did not. And he survived despite all that._ I brought up what had happened during the UWG presentation, not even saying anything about the more recent battle. _Using 'normal humans' to model his behavior just isn't going to work._

There were a few moments of silence and I could practically feel her frustration at my words. Or maybe, could I actually feel it? She is in my head and can hear everything I think, so how much of it works the other way around? That is a bit of a scary thought.

 _Look, Eve,_ I continued, _You are smart and you can go through data like nobody's business and do calculations that I can't even begin to understand, but that doesn't mean you can figure out everything. We have to work together here. Try to learn a few things from me, I do have my good points after all._

There were a few seconds of deafening silence before Eve forced the words out of herself. _I will try._

 _Good enough, now can you make sure I'm putting this thing in right._ I said to her as I reached up to put the vial into the slot.

 _You have it backwards._ She informed me in a deadpan tone.

 _Really… I couldn't tell any difference between one side and the other…_ I mused, turning it around.

 _Actually, no. Not really. Both ends are exactly the same._

I stopped short in amazement. _Did you… Did you just make a joke?_

 _It appears to be your most common mode of behavior, so it seemed fitting to attempt that as the first thing I endeavored to learn from you._

 _Not bad,_ I answered and pushed the vial into the hole on my side after activating the implant plug. _It could use some refinement but I've definitely seen, and done, worse ones myself. But as for this implant, you mentioned that it would knock me out, do you have any idea of how lo_

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"Welcome back," Daisy said as I groggily opened my eyes. I had the mother of all headaches and it was accompanied by the in-laws, ones that felt suspiciously like an oncoming flu mixed with that floating feeling you get when you have been in the pool too long.

"How long was I out?" I asked, sitting up. The headache didn't get any better, but at least it didn't get any worse.

"Only a couple hours, way shorter than the cyborg in the other room said you would be out." She said with a light smile, "But first you need to eat something. I checked you when we found you unconscious and figured out that you had used one of your vials with your implant. Lion-wolf?" she asked.

It took me a moment through my haze to realize that what I had been thinking of as a demonic bulldog seemed more like a lion-wolf to her. I could understand where she could see that in them. "Those are supposed to give you reinforced bones, which is why they were so hard to put down, though there are a few better things you could get from them… if you are lucky."

She nodded, obviously thinking that I had told her that I got the reinforced bones. "Several of the others went into the nearby settlement to get some supplies with the money we got from the first round. They should be back soon and the rest of us can go in the morning."

"Who?" I asked as I reached into my bag to grab some of the food cubes I had picked up earlier and some water. One was supposed to be a full days food supply, so I decided to try that first, but I was fully prepared to need more later as they never seemed very filling. I also checked to make sure that everything that was supposed to be there was. I even found that weird device from that empty farmhouse on the first day.

"Thiago, Kitana, Aphrodite, and KingArthor," she said with a frown. "KingArthor made a fuss about absolutely needing to upgrade his armor. The next round is supposed to happen mid-afternoon, so we'll have to hurry."

I nodded. I wasn't really looking forward to it. The next round was supposed to be a fight against a group of 'Haxlord light infantry' leveled at an average of 500. With how much trouble we had had with the last group, level 50-100, I wasn't really expecting much from us.

"So how are you recovering from the fight?" I asked her, standing up and noticing the stains and damage on her dress. I was still a bit wobbly and everything still felt like I was floating, but the headache was a bit better.

A flash of fear jumped to her eyes but was immediately gone. "I am doing, ok… I can heal myself somewhat and I wasn't hurt that badly and…" she petered off to an indecipherable mumble, then came back with much more gusto. "I was really surprised, you know, when I found out what happens when you take an ability. I used my points to first increase my knowledge of xenobiology, and then suddenly I just knew things I didn't know before. It left me with kinda a tingly feeling." She shivers, like from the cold, but doesn't stop smiling. "Was it like that for you too?"

I shrug, "I spent most of my points on some abilities that are supposed to be prerequisites for other things, like 'Skilled'. Don't ask me for what, though, the stuff my AI can and can't tell me makes no god-dammed sense."

She nodded with a slight smile. "I remember that one. It gives you an extra ability point every other level. There is also the 'Gifted' one that gives you extra ability points every level. They are really good and should help your growth speed."

"Actually, I only took them for the 'Talanted' ability. The System limits your abilities and skills to five times your level but the number of points you get on leveling up drops from five points a level, down to two points at level 100, and then to only one point every other level at 1,000. The rest have to be trained or bought with quests or in game currency somehow? That's one part I'm not completely sure about. There are ways to temporarily go beyond that limit, but then the system balances it out by lowering how many extra points you can buy later on. By the time you hit level 100 the ability won't even have paid for itself and you will essentially be fifty points weaker than someone else could be at your level." The robot had gone a bit funny when I brought up the idea of power leveling by getting a lot of abilities, momentarily breaking its flat demeanor before catching itself and going into a whole explanation of how that wouldn't work because you had to get double your level's total points for each level you wanted to go up and how this had been designed to keep people from doing exactly what I had described. It had finished its explanation with an air of finality. Never bet against a troll being able to break the game.

Daisy, for her part, looked down and gave a sour face. The same sour face, come to think of it, that she gave when I had described my plan to level by gaining abilities. "So does that mean my abilities are useless? They seemed so good." she asked to herself in a whisper.

"No, they are used for something." I answered. "I just don't have a clue what for."

The sour face stayed set as she gave an unconvincing, "yeah."

What was I supposed to say to that? Was there anything I could say? "So…" I said in a completely obvious attempt to change the subject. "Shouldn't I feel different from the effects of the implant?"

"Um yes? Maybe?" she said, raising her hand toward me. Her palm glowed and lines showed up on her arm branching out from it in the same light. The lines were an odd mixture of almost vein-like major branches of smooth organic pulses with smaller sometimes quite complex angular lines buzzing with a feel of super-space aged technology. "From what I can tell the changes will be more clear as your body finishes adapting to the addition. Until then you should have only partial effects and, of course, you'll feel a bit down as well."

"Down?" I asked, eyeing her arm as the glow faded.

"You know. Sick, out of sorts, down."

 _Eve? Translation._ I commanded.

 _The major effects can vary from one implant to another with more powerful examples also inferring greater negatives during the incubation period. The most common effect, however, is reduced stats; especially those stats most closely aligned with the change._ Translation of translation: My base stats would be horrible for a while, and it would be worse because I had gotten a more powerful DNA sample for my implant.

"That's not all too bad, I guess." I answered. "How long until I'm up to full power again?"

"Oh, you're lucky." She said with a definite and serious nod. "Normally it should take a couple days but this time it should only take about 17 more hours and you'll be set. The implant's effects are taking really well."

I glanced up at the timer in the corner of my vision.

 _Next round starting in 15:28:53._

Well crap…


	10. 1-09 The Tutorial

For those of you who have been reading this fanfiction, I have updated the first three chapters. The first one (Prologue 0.0) has gone through some more major revisions, although the basics are the same; mostly the tone has shifted a good bit. The second and third chapter (The Tutorial 1.01 and The Tutorial 1.02) have much more subtle changes and there is a good chance that anyone reading will not even notice what I fixed. I hope you enjoy it!

08080808080

"Thanks for getting your pen, Daisy." I said, smiling internally at the scowl on Thiago's face. "DeLong left earlier with MadMerlin, so can you write him a note for when he gets back? Tell him that I took care of the thing between us and that we are even now, and sign my name."

She did but spoke up while writing. "Why don't you just message him?"

"I've learned that some people can listen in on messages unless you take certain precautions, which either take special equipment or credits. This should get the info back to him in plenty of time, so it will be fine."

She nodded and pushed the note forward on the table with a "uh-hu" sound.

"Are you and Ace ready to go? Last I heard he was almost done moving and re-burying the landmines."

"He said to start when we get a chance, but to keep the camp in sight. He will catch up with us in five minutes." She grabbed her purse and started out the door. I moved to follow her but stopped when Thiago grabbed my arm.

"I don't know what sort of game you are playing, but know that I'm watching you." He said in a clearly audible whisper. "I know IceWolf too well to believe any of this is as straightforward as it seems." He let go of my arm and straightened out his suit in all its gleaming white. I knew he was wearing some powered defensive getup under it, but it was designed to be completely impossible to see before it took a hit.

I glanced down at my arm then back up at him. "Look, don't blame me for anything he has done. I'm my own person. Besides, I thought you were friends or allies or something."

His eyes narrowed then he added a predatory smile. "Trust needs to be earned and some people are just too smart for their own good. Prove me wrong, boy, and then we'll talk."

I looked at him again but really didn't have anything more to say. So instead I just turned and walked away. The morning outside seemed far too warm for the fall season but that could have just been because of the humidity. Ahead I could see Ace making his way toward Daisy and I rushed to catch up.

The walk was mostly uneventful and a couple of us tried to make small talk as we went. It turned out that Ace was capable of keeping up a conversation so long as you never asked him questions about himself. He would answer most things, but the answers would be curt and there was a distinct lack of willingness to continue with what he had said. As soon as we started talking about someone or something else, however, he changed completely. The man never really became a chatterbox, but he did interact enough to not be rude and to keep things continuing.

Daisy, on the other hand, was a complete opposite. She would be part of a normal conversation one moment and then something would catch her interest and she would go off onto an explanation that would fill the air for minutes at a time. Honestly, though, I think she was mainly doing it out of an attempt to let off stress. One of us would bring up something about fights, or weapons, or winning a competition, or really almost any sort of struggle against the odds; and then suddenly she would glance down at our weapons before going off about nearly any sort of thing she could.

Despite all this, I did learn more about both of them. Ace had grown up as the youngest child in a family that had seen better times. He had first tried to keep up with his siblings and then live up to their level, despite the age difference; but eventually he decided to overtake them however he could. In many ways he seemed to have gotten a case of the "little man syndrome" where some smaller than average kids try to prove themselves excessively, or at least that was the picture of it that I got. "Life" was the only answer he would give for how he went from that to the completely unflappable person who stood before us.

Daisy, on the other hand, grew up in the lap of luxury but I got the feeling that her parents were always somewhat distant with somewhat unbearable expectations that they termed as "results befitting your background". Most of her friends were either people in similar study programs or kids with similarly demanding parents, so it hadn't been till college that she really let loose. And by "let loose" she seemed to mean wearing strappy sandals and something other than a business suit. She could keep up with my movie knowledge pretty well, but she joked that it was only because her parents had made her watch movies as a study in "popular culture". Despite all this she had enjoyed her life and, from the way she spoke, setting herself to a task really helped keep her life centered.

I contributed where I could, but there wasn't really much to say. My parents were good people who loved me but never had any strong convictions or expectations. Most of my life had been driven by boredom or by finding cleaver ways to avoid or drive away things that annoyed me. I briefly mentioned Evaline, my one and only girlfriend, but only because she had convinced me to really apply myself to gaming. From there talking was easy and I brought up a number of amusing stories about my adventures in gaming. Ace rolled his eyes at one story commenting, "but what did you really do, not on a screen," but still managed a smile at the story of how I won a game for my team by spending so much time singlehandedly trolling the enemy that they failed to develop any defenses for my teammates. Those guys were jerks, though, and had literally told me to do my worst. I had finished the game with a 0/6 Kill/death ratio and a level of infamy that propelled my professional career into the big leagues.

By the time we arrived at the Metron outpost everyone seemed to be in a good mood, though all outward signs of it disappeared from Ace's face the moment we saw another person. Daisy had calmed down a bit and went off on far fewer mini-rants but glanced around at the many people in their many high-tech outfits as though it was a museum for which she would have a test. Even so, even Ace couldn't hide the slight spring in his step as they headed off in a separate direction. I had briefly entertained the idea of trying to track down MadMerlin and DeLong but chose instead to follow up with the Thought Emporium people. After all, they still owed me something for the information I had given them and, as information brokers, I might be able to get some real answers. Besides, the settlement wasn't exactly bursting the seams with people. It seemed to be the sort of place where people got what they wanted and then got out. Or maybe I just came at a slow time of day, I really had no way to tell.

The place itself seemed to cover a huge area of land but almost everything seemed to be on the ground level. Vendors were pointing to screens and holo-images advertising their wares rather than showing off the items themselves and only half of the buildings were permanent. When I asked Eve where they kept all the items themselves she told me "on a different level" but went silent when I asked if she meant underground or somewhere else. The other thing I did was to look at all the items for sale; their stats, costs, and ranking/rarity level. I quickly let Eve connect to every shop she could in order to collect and parse the data of everything they were selling. It took about half an hour before she had enough data to give me rough numbers about what was a bad deal, what was good equipment for the price and rarity, and what was just good equipment overall.

More than most anything else the ranking seemed to be one of the most important stats for just about everything as it determined what equipment was kept, lost, or damaged on death. The basics were that the ranks started at E and went all the way up to S. E ranked stuff was treated as junk and were cheep, but seemed otherwise the same as rank D stuff. I had no idea what the difference was between D and E, but my civilian clothes fell into the lowest category. D was treated as minimum passable quality and also had the advantage of being repaired when you died, which was very useful. C, which was the level of my new weapons and was far more powerful than the earlier rank, kept any damage on death; though I was assured that certain conditions, such as death in the tutorial, negated the damage. This became a very important level, and sometimes cost more than some B ranked equipment, because this was the highest level where you would still be able to keep the items on death. Death item loss, I was told, affected even those in the Tutorial.

B ranked equipment was where things really got interesting. It was the highest level of things that could be mass produced, if the description could be trusted, but still showed very significant improvements over the C ranked stuff. The cost of the better B ranked stuff, though, reached the astronomical. And by that I meant that it made my Ten Million dollar debt look like afternoon spending money. Using the simple 10:1 conversion for outside money to game credits meant that some things cost upwards of a hundred million dollars. There was no A ranked equipment for sale, and I was told that there pretty much never would be in this type of bazar. A ranked equipment was specifically created and absolutely unique; it was also powerful enough that entire planetary systems sometimes moved on the rumor of some good A ranked equipment, though that last part may have just been the words of an overzealous sales-man (sales-woman? sales-squid?). S ranked equipment was only rumored to exist, though they were good rumors, but it was believed to work under different rules from other equipment, such as not being dropped on death despite its strength.

With that information gathered I grabbed a couple of useful knickknacks including a water bottle that filled from the air, an auto-grooming kit, a collapsible sleeping bag that folded into a wad the size of my fist, and a motion-censor alarm so that I could sleep with less worry. Despite the high tech nature of it all, everything I bought cost less than a hundred credits. That left me with about 9,000 credits to spend on information, power armor and maybe a gun larger than a pistol. The Thought Emporium would have to be my first stop.

Connecting to the establishment's computer was, by far, easier than finding the building itself. People went there because they wanted to be there, and not because they just stumbled on the place. When I walked in the place was fairly underwhelming. One medium sized room with a few holographic advertisements and a single man who's only distinguishing feature was a growing bald-spot and odd looking bifocals. Eve caught my interest and determined that they weren't used for eyesight correction. The elder looking guy just stood there to the side and watched me without a word.

"Hey," I said in my most eloquent tone. "I'm AdamPWNZ, I was told to come here for store credit."

He raised a single eyebrow. "And how do I know you are who you say you are?"

"Do you recognize this?" I asked as I pulled out my sword from its place on my pack.

A smile came to his eyes with a sudden flash of recognition and the man looked noticeably calmer. "Well I'll be. I had thought that too much of a tall tale to be true. A newbie like you probably wants an info package, right?"

"I do. And I heard that you have some advanced packages that might be nice."

"We do, I could use your credit to give you a delux package. This includes all the information from the basic package, knowledge brought together from publically available sources in an easy to parse format, but also includes less available information on notable and infamous individuals. Those would be the people you need to recognize or avoid." He gave me the 'merchant's eye', looking me over with a sidelong glance to see my reaction to his pitch.

"Actually I was looking for more on abilities, classes, and other such things, primarily. The basic package along with that shouldn't be too expensive."

"Well now, that's a bit more expensive for anything other than the basic information, but if you are asking this now I assume you've already talked with the tin man for the simple stuff." He reached up and rubbed the back of his head as he spoke, just below his massive bald spot. "I can make that trade instead if you like."

It wasn't great but it would get me the info that I absolutely needed. "Sure, if that is all I can afford."

A pop up appeared. _Trade Store Credit for the Thought Emperium: Basic Info Package and Advanced Ability Listings? Agree/Disagree_

I had been expecting another two part deal again, since my 'tutorial bonus' would multiply any credits I touched by five. The fact that a businessman like him would ignore that bonus was beyond suspicious. Really, I could only think of one reason he would do that; only one way that he would come out ahead by making the trade straight rather than going back and forth. "Exactly how much credit do I have?" I asked.

He mumbled something unfriendly under his breath but finally answered. "About seventy thousand."

It took a moment for me to process what he had said and then only half that time to realize what it meant. If my cut was seventy thousand, after the cost of the weapons, that would mean the Thought Emporium expected to make between one and two million credits, or between ten and twenty million dollars, from it. Unless there was a big name player who somehow cared, the only way it would be worth that much is if they sold it to the government. And I can't think of a government anywhere that wouldn't take issue with their ally 'accidentally' destroying some of their facilities.

And here I was thinking that being able to trade that information was a good thing. "Well," I spoke out loud, "at least I made sure that my name wasn't connected with the information."

"Don't worry. We protect our informants. Any good broker does or they stop getting information very quickly." He assured me with one of the least assuring smiles I have ever seen. "When the issue of source came up we just said it was an eyewitness from among the new players. Apparently they overreacted because of some others irregularities and have decided to go on a major witch hunt for god only knows what among the new players. Things went wrong in a major way and they are looking for someone to blame. They said something about players or a player going missing?" He looked over at me appraisingly, "you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "If I had a way to know something like that, would I have any need to deal with you?" Hopefully he would buy my bluff.

"Right." He conceded, not pushing things. "I assume that it was your AI that looked at our prices, so I'm sure that you have some idea by now of what you would like to get with your credit."

"Actually," I said, nodding toward one of the displays around the room, "I'd like to spend some of that credit on some armor." The actual armor I was looking at was an unassuming black on grey with powerful but understated lines and a full facemask. More importantly, it had the ability to go invisible and silent while still having recommended and minimum use requirements that I could handle. It was apparently listed as 'salvaged' technology from a hated faction that worshiped a long-gone civilization. The faction had managed to remain independent, despite their somewhat central position within the galaxy, in part due to their unusual technology.

He glanced at where I had indicated. "Basic Revenant Scout Armor. A good choice, especially if you don't have the skills or the money to use some of the other types. It is also has some unique properties that would be hard to find somewhere else. I'm even running a bit of a discount on it. I'm sure I can work something out with you. Unfortunately that is technically a different shop from the Thought Emporium so the credit won't transfer."

"Why can't I cash out the credit to buy something else from you?"

"Rules of the original contract," he said in an unconvincing but uncompromising manner. "All I can do is follow them."

I made a noise of acknowledgement but spoke to Eve instead. _You know what I need so figure out a good combination of packages to buy. Send me a list when you have figured it out._

There was half a moment's delay and I had a list in front of me. Wow, she is fast. It included the Delux Info Package, Advanced Ability Listings, an Advanced Maps Set, Advanced Equipment Listings, and basic version of the Hardware and Vehicle listings. It even included a few years of updates. Considering that the basic package that most people bought cost 100 credits, this was excessive to an extreme degree, but it wasn't as though I could spend it anywhere else. After glancing it over I sent it to the Thought Emporium's computer and, after the extra transaction of store credits to galactic credit and galactic credit to buy, I was informed that the information was being transferred.

 _Can you give me anything to get started?_ I asked Eve.

She took a few seconds to respond. _The data is quite comprehensive and will need to be categorized before I can efficiently utilize it. The volume itself is such that I need to use offline storage to properly access it._ Great, so my AI was going to be busy for a while fiddling with her new data.

 _Have fun with your new toy, but don't disappear completely if I need something._

 _Affirmative._

"Is everything to your approval?" The shopkeeper, who's name I had forgotten get, asked.

"Yeah. It's just a lot of information."

"You get what you pay for!" he said in a positively jolly tone. "Now how can I get you into that suit of armor you were looking at?"

I glanced at it again, having Eve pull up the listed abilities with half a thought. "It is a very nice item, but I don't quite have the credits to cover it and I still need to get a long-range weapon, if possible." He gave me a look, and I was reminded of the stereotypical shopkeeper in every game ever. You know, the miserly dealer who's only two vices were greed and spitting rage against anyone who was seen as a threat to his greed. I wonder, how much were video games true to real life, or whatever this was, anyway? "Actually, I was wondering if you would like to make a deal. I've got 9,000 credits to spend and I was thinking you might have some sort of quiet job for me to do that would cover the rest?"

This couldn't work, it just couldn't. Real life is not some RPG where every townsfolk has some task for you to do. At least, that is what I kept telling myself. And then the man turned my entire world on the side with a single tight-lipped smile. "Actually, I do believe that something can be arranged. It would be a bit light on the 'law and order', but that wouldn't be a problem for you?" Then he actually brought his hands together, fingertip to fingertip, like he was some sort of Bond villain.

I reflexively rolled my eyes and answered. "I'm wanting to buy a suit of armor that makes me invisible, built by one of the most hated factions in the galaxy. 'Law and order' are not major concerns, so long as you don't try to stick them on me."

He looked me over again. "Go to a place called the Iron Wall and make them hurt. Deal them 5,000 credits of damage and the armor is yours, along with the transfer of those credits of yours, of course. Hurt them a bit more and I'll see about getting you a weapon, equil value to the extra damage you do. To give you some help I'll even transfer you a schematic of their building, including the location of the reactor that keeps it running. Good luck."

 _An agreement has been proposed between ShopDealer4271 and AdamPWNZ: Adam PWNZ will deal 5,000 credits of damage to the business known as the Iron Wall, and in return ShopDealer4271 will pay him 5,000 credits, which will then be added to AdamPWNZ 9,000 credits to buy Basic Revenant Scout Armor. Any extra damage done will result in an equal transfer of funds to be used to buy a suitable weapon. Agree/Disagree_

My first thought was to wonder at how he would be transferring me 5,000 credits to cover the cost I didn't have, not 1,000 with the Tutorial multiplier. After the multiplier he would be making 20,000 credits above the asking price, which was basically multiplying his investment by five and getting me to do some illegal work for him. Damn, that was a lucrative investment. Actually, if all the shopkeepers had figured out the same loophole, than it explained how this place could be so empty but still have so many shops. I'm sure there was some sort of rule that would prevent outright abuse, but the possibilities were still a bit crazy. With that thought done I selected 'agree' and was notified that I had received the Iron Wall building schematic.

"I'll see you back again soon." He said with a low nod that caught the light on his bald spot.

"Can I take the armor?" I asked, not really expecting much.

"You get it when you pay for it." He answered with a dismissive huff.

I nodded and left.

The walk was uneventful other than that Eve managed to find the player information among everything she had been sent. Suddenly every person had a label above their head and many had a level and classes listed as well. There were a few with an odd symbol near their name and when I focused on them Eve sent me even more information. I tried looking at some people without that symbol and, while I got more information, it wasn't near as much or as useful. Eve wasn't very talkative, though, and was more focused on going through all the new information.

The Iron Wall was not iron at all, it was concrete, but at least it was a solidly permanent building. I circled it once, and saw what was the generator (it looked a lot like one of those square AC units), but Eve pointed out a number of security systems and a shield that meant trying to go after the obvious weak point would pretty certainly fail. With no other obvious ideas I decided to try going inside.

The interior was a lot nicer than the Thought Emporium's tech on concrete motif; it had actual carpet and a drywall interior. Other than that it could have been the same place with a few different labels. The only meaningful difference was that, instead of having an incredibly nondescript salesman, this one had a vaguely humanoid robot. Honestly, it reminded me of Jonny Five from that old movie except that it had a head that just barely missed the uncanny valley by mere inches. Why would you even give a robot a nose in the first place? Aliens are weird.

"And make sure it has an extra helping of freedom," the one and only patron said to the robot as I came in. The man's name was listed as 'Iron Eagle' and a level of 103, but he had no other useful information. That level was pretty low for someone in the actual game, so I figured he must be little more than a courier. Mr. Eagle checked the contents of the box in an extremely suspicious display before shuffling quickly out the door. My first thought for him was either 'spy' or 'gangster', but he didn't fit either of the stereotypes, so I just settled on 'incompetent with a job' and decided go on with my life.

"Hello, sir. How may I help you?" the robot asked neutrally.

"This place seems pretty barren, where is everything you are selling?"

"We keep it in a secondary dimension until it is called forth." It answered. "This allows quick delivery with virtually no risk of theft or damage before sale."

Damn, there goes that plan. "What about those displays, are they worth anything?"

"The displays are not usually for sale, but an arrangement could be made for enough credits to cover their replacement and a small convenience fee."

"And how much would that cost?"

"130 credits per unit, a fair price when you consider that you could be taking them home today." I wasn't sure if the neutrality was bad or good. It didn't really get me excited to buy anything, but it also left me feeling too apathetic to be very upset about the loss of another plan. There was literally nothing in the building that was worth anything and that I could get at.

Actually… "and what about the robot unit I am speaking to at the moment, what would you be worth?"

"This unit is not for sale, but would be worth 20,000 credits as a manufacturer's suggested retail price." Jackpot.

"That is very good. Your job seems to be to help in any way that you can, is that right?"

"That is correct, so long as I don't violate my rules of my job. These rules include returning to the desk when not otherwise occupied, cleaning and upkeep of the premises, not going beyond the front door, assisting in any legal way to someone who may be interested in making a purchase, and only giving people items they have paid for. Other rules govern my behavior, but those are the main ones governing my job."

I wasn't sure what to say. Whoever programmed this robot was an idiot. It shouldn't be so easy to get it to describe its programming. Still, someone's foolishness is my gain. "So would I need to worry if, say, a giant Revenant Scout dog-monster attacked from outside? Would you be ok? What type of defenses do you have against that sort of thing?"

"It would be extremely unlikely for that to happen, as we are marked as neutral for any Tutorial engagement. Any new players who attempt to use this place as cover would mark themselves as hostile, allowing the town's soldiers and anyone else associated with or hired by the town to attack that player. Also this unit is designed to survive any attacks by teleporting itself and only itself back to the shop's storage dimension any time shield damage has been done. Any direct attack will also send an automated alert to the town guards."

Well, so much for attacking the robot. It probably had pretty tough shields too. I really didn't trust my ability to one shot the thing. So there goes that idea.

Actually… "But if nobody attacks you than nothing bad will happen, right?"

"That is correct."

08080808080

I was greeted with a questioning look from ShopKeeper4271 as I entered and held open the door to his shop. "Robot, can you help me with something over here?".

The shopkeeper immediately came to attention as the Iron Wall's robot followed me into the building. "How might I be of assistance today?" it asked.

"What is the meaning of this?" the shopkeeper asked with a weapon suddenly on his hand. It was another one of those squid rifles, like the Haxlord guards had been using.

"One second." I took a step to the right. "Robot can you help me with something." It made the six inch long trek before again asking how it might help. I turned back to the shopkeeper. "I'm not sure if it counts as stealing or what, but I brought you the Iron Wall's robot. I'm sure you can find something creative to do with it."

His eyes went wide as he stared at me. Suddenly his composure completely fell apart and he broke a smile. Turning, he took two steps to an empty portion of wall as a glowing door shaped light appeared and faded into showing another room. Reaching in he grabbed something I didn't see while yelling. "Hey Bram, you have got to see this. You won't believe what this one new player just brought us."

"I'm busy, Honsor. This had better be good." This one sounded much more country than the first but when he appeared he looked like a dark skinned human with elf ears and two slits where a nose would be. Can aliens be southerners? How can they have accents at all? I am so confused right now.

"Oh, it most certainly is," the shopkeeper said, squinting at the robot very deliberately for a number of seconds. The robot responded by powering down.

"Holy shit! Did you steal the Iron Wall's till-keeper?" He looked at me appreciatively. His eyes were weird with slits rather than a round pupal, but the openings seemed to turn freely and both eyes moved independently. It was honestly a bit distracting.

"Steal is such a strong word," I said, "I convinced it to take a little walk with me till you folks took custody of it."

"Well no shit." He answered back with a laugh. "I gotta take some pics, nobody back at branch is going to believe me otherwise."

"I have to ask," the shopkeeper spoke up, "How did you do it?"

I smiled. "The thing had some bad programming, and when I asked it even told me how the programming was set up. After I knew that it was easy. I tricked it into going outside by putting some mud on the outside of the door for it to clean, and then asked for its help every few feet to get it to follow me all the way back here." Neither of them reacted in that moment so I continued. "And how did you shut the robot down by just looking at it?"

The shopkeeper had an unnerving smile as he looked at the robot. "I hacked it. Something about The Game or reality itself means that you can hack just about anything, though there is a lot less you can do with a wall or a chair. Most people need special equipment, but some of it is a lot less obvious." He said with a wink.

"So, this should count as finishing your quest, along with that special bonus beyond the base 5,000. So what do you have for me?"

"Hm, I'm sure I can find you a suitable long-ranged weapon. I've got just the thing." He said, typing something in to a computer station next to the door.

"Honsor, don't stiff the kid." The other alien said. I took that as a bit of an insult, though for all I knew these guys were a hundred years old a peace. There had been something about the anti-aging effects of going into The Game that I had been told, so I couldn't be sure.

"I wasn't," but made the fast consecutive taps followed by more chaotic taps that I had come to associate with someone deleting something and typing something else in. Moments later a weapon appeared beside him made of the same grey and matte black as my soon to be new suit. "This is a Beginner's Revenant Sniper Rifle. It is basically designed for two things: First, it has design features to train snipers with good habits. A long recharge with a two second delay between shots and a maximum of only three shots before the energy is depleted means that you are better off taking a couple shots and then moving. The recharge is several times as long if the weapon isn't powered down and put away, so get used to switching weapons as you move. Firing a laser payload means that it will blow past the threshold of shields pretty easily, but it lacks the ability to deplete the total power of shields very well and any shot that misses a vital will be easily fixable. I would recommend getting used to making head shots. The aiming rectile is within the barrel, which gives it extreme accuracy but also means that it is useless unless you are invisible. Finally the weapon is extremely sensitive to movement, and won't fire if it isn't steady enough. All of these could be seen as downsides, but could also be seen as intentional design decisions. The second thing it is designed for is to pack as much power into C ranking as possible. You can blow through the mobile shields on anything the size of a personnel carrier or below, but unless you hit a vital spot the only effect will be an easily fixable hole. Use it well and it will outperform almost any B ranked weapon you can find, Revnant examples excluded. In addition I'll also give you this Bronze Thought Emporium Mark. You can always turn it in for character points or credits, but the main use of the thing is to find and identify people within our network if you decide to join. And, to be clear, an offer is on the table for after you finish The Tutorial. Like any faction there is a give and take, but I'm sure you will find the rewards are well worth it." He sounded like a Revnant fanboy as he went on and on. Although, to be fair, it was a very impressive weapon. The faction invite wasn't bad either, especially considering that they were some of the biggest information gathering networks in the galaxy.

"Um, isn't this a bit much? I looked at how much the robot was worth and it shouldn't hurt them nearly that much to loose it; and certainly not enough for such a high end weapon, a mark, and an invitation to your guild." Honestly I wasn't sure how much the mark was worth, but it even if I ignored it what I was getting was a crazy amount.

"I didn't tell you?" he asked with a sharp smile, "I'm going to reprogram this robot to sell everything for a single credit each. If you have some time you might want to head back over for a sale you will never forget. Anything you buy will serve you well for the tutorial, though you won't have enough credits to keep them from just taking it back later. Meanwhile the costs to fix it will be too high to count."

As though on cue I got a message:

[ _A deal has been completed between AdamPWNZ and ShopKeeper4271: In exchange for damaging the Iron Wall AdamPWNZ will receive 1,000,000 credits and then trade those 1,009,000 credits for Basic Revenant Scout Armor, Beginner's Revenant Sniper Rifle, 1 Bronze Thought Emporium Mark, and a provisional invitation to the Thought Emporium faction (cannot be redeemed until after The Tutorial). Agree/Disagree_ ]

I hadn't actually intended to do anywhere near that much damage to the Iron Wall. Since we were still on Earth I knew they would be under Earth's laws, which included suing for 'wrongful losses' to let them get back their stuff; so I knew it wouldn't ruin them or anything. It would just cost a lot to fix. Somewhere in the area of ten million real world dollars, assuming that million credit reward was a fair estimate and wasn't simply the limit of what they could reward as part of a double trade. I rubbed my eyes, not sure of what I should do. A few moments passed without me actually accepting the deal.

 _The damage has already been done, therefore there is no reason why not to accept the rewards of it._ Eve reminded me. _Furthermore, since The Tutorial generally ends in death, any equipment you gain from them will be returned with a minimum of difficulty. At this stage in your advancement you need every advantage possible to overcome the difficulties inherent in your current situation._

I thought about it for a second. I had a group that mostly treated me as dead weight despite the fact that their cheating was what actually made things harder, I was going to go up against some section of one of the most powerful armies in the galaxy in a complete unknown, and that same army probably had it out for me because of all that business with the Titan AI. I wasn't exactly in the best position ever. On the other hand I was about to get a great new weapon, sweet armor, and the possibility of getting some even better stuff from the Iron Wall. Stealing in real-life had never been something I did, but it was a common part of a lot of games. Even knowing that this was a game seemed different when I felt like I was physically here rather than just looking onto a screen.

What finally made my decision was remembering what Icewolf had said. Play to win. Factions can be paid off later if you upset them, and I remembered how much of a point he had made about doing well on The Tutorial. With a thought I hit _Agree_.

Hey, for all I know my luck might finally be looking up!


End file.
